Bills limiting or increasing the legal protection of life in Poland after 1997

Bartłomiej Baran; Jan Melon

doi:10.37873/er8x6g98

Bills limiting or increasing the legal protection of life in Poland after 1997

Bartłomiej Baran

Polish Legislation Society

Jan Melon

Ordo Iuris Institute

Publication:

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

Series: Ordo Iuris Library

DOI: https://doi.org/10.37873/844pvb18

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 chapter describes attempts to change Poland's abortion law from 1994 to 2020, covering all citizens' and deputies' bills aimed at expanding access to abortion, except the 2006 bill to amend the Constitution, alongside all bills aimed at more effectively protecting the lives of children at the prenatal stage.

The analysis shows that most attempts to undermine the so-called abortion compromise have come from left-wing groups seeking to lower Poland's standard of protection for human life by introducing a "right to abortion," or at least shaping its preconditions so that abortion within the first twelve weeks of conception would be unrestricted. These bills disregarded fathers' rights entirely, treating the decision to end a child's prenatal life as the mother's sovereign act of will.

Allegations that conservative circles are exclusively responsible for pursuing a "violation of the abortion compromise" are therefore unjustified.

Bartłomiej Baran, Polish Legislation Society

Lawyer, civil servant, legislative trainee at the Government Legislation Center. Graduated with honors from the University of Warsaw with a degree in law, and completed postgraduate managerial studies at the Warsaw School of Economics and corporate financial management at the Leon Koźmiński Academy. He gained experience, among others, in the European Parliament in Brussels and the District Court in Warsaw, as well as in numerous non-governmental organizations and public administration. Graduate of numerous training and leadership programs on law, politics and the importance of values in social life. Member of the Polish Legislation Society.

Jan Melon, Ordo Iuris Institute

Bachelor’s degree in sociology from Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski University in Warsaw. Currently a master’s student in sociology and a law student at the same university. Author of numerous analyses for non-governmental organizations. His research interests focus on the sociology of religion and family.

License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

How to Cite

Baran, B. and Melon, J. (2026) “Bills limiting or increasing the legal protection of life in Poland after 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:10.37873/844pvb18.