STRASBOURG - Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Dunja Mijatović, and Council of Europe Secretary General, Marija Pejčinović Burić responded to the call to action ahead of the vote in the Polish Sejm on the bills "Stop abortion" and "Stop Paedophilia" signed by 170 parliamentarians from 24 countries. See their responses in the below link and attachment.
“Both bills take the exact opposite direction to my prior recommendations and I can only repeat my earlier calls to reject them. Rather than to try to make abortion illegal and to push it further underground, Poland should make abortion legal on a woman’s request in early pregnancy, and thereafter throughout pregnancy to protect women’s health and lives and ensure freedom from ill-treatment”, Commissioner Dunja Mijatović
The votes took place in the Polish Sejm last week and the bills were not rejected but sent for further examination in the Parliamentary Commissions, thus continuing the stalemate on abortion and sexuality education for Polish citizens. These bills could come back at any time over the next 3.5 years (the course of the current term of the Polish Sejm).
EPF hopes to count on continued parliamentiary solidarity with Polish women and upholding the sexual and reproductive health and rights of all.