Historical outline of Polish legislation on abortion (from the interwar period to 1997)

Agata Tarnacka; Damian Tarnacki

doi:10.37873/er8x6g98

Historical outline of Polish legislation on abortion (from the interwar period to 1997)

Agata Tarnacka

Damian Tarnacki

Publication:

Protection of human life at the prenatal stage of development: Social, medical and legal aspects

Series: Ordo Iuris Library

DOI: https://doi.org/10.37873/sdx3q923

Keywords: protection of human life, prenatal stage of development, abortion, conceived child, right to life, contraceptives, maternal mortality, mental health complications of abortion, constitutional standards of protection of life, family planning act

Published: June 17, 2026

The subject of this chapter is to present, within the framework of a historical outline, how the legal regulations concerning the permissibility of abortion in Poland evolved in the years 1918–1996. The chapter opens with a dis cussion of the regulations from the inter-war period, the Nazi occupation, and the communist era. This is followed by a detailed discussion of the proposed abortion laws debated in parliament between 1989 and 1997, i.e., the entire path leading to the enactment of the currently binding Act of 7 January 1993 on family planning, protection of the human foetus and the conditions of permissibility of terminating a pregnancy.

Agata Tarnacka

Graduate of the Faculty of Law and Administration at Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski University in Warsaw, author of scientific articles and co-author of research
reports on children’s rights. Her area of scientific interest is primarily constitutional law and family law. She is a speaker at international and national scientific conferences. She has many years of experience in private law.

Damian Tarnacki

Graduated in administration from the Faculty of Law and Administration at Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski University in Warsaw, administration with a specialization in finance and banking from the Faculty of Historical and Social Sciences at Warsaw University of Technology, law from the Faculty of Law at the European School of Law and Administration, and Master of Business Administration studies from the Faculty of Social Sciences at the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin. Lawyer and administrator, civil servant.

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How to Cite

Tarnacka, A. and Tarnacki, D. (2026) “Historical outline of Polish legislation on abortion (from the interwar period to 1997)”, in Kwaśniewski, J. (ed.) Protection of human life at the prenatal stage of development: Social, medical and legal aspects. Warszawa: Ordo Iuris Institute for Legal Culture - Scientific Press (Ordo Iuris Library). doi:10.37873/sdx3q923.