{"version":"1.9","identifier":"1836b191-e586-4074-8f1c-dcdf39c643c8","language":"en-US","title":"Polish Senate committees back two bills easing abortion law as Nawrocki weighs a veto","layout":{"columns":7,"width":1024,"margin":32,"gutter":20},"componentLayouts":{"text":{"columnStart":0,"columnSpan":7,"maximumContentWidth":720,"margin":{"top":12,"bottom":12}},"photo":{"columnStart":0,"columnSpan":7,"margin":{"top":20,"bottom":20}}},"componentTextStyles":{"default":{"fontName":"HelveticaNeue","fontSize":18,"lineHeight":29,"textColor":"#171717"},"headline":{"fontName":"HelveticaNeue-Bold","fontSize":36,"lineHeight":42,"conditional":[{"conditions":{"maxViewportWidth":480},"fontSize":28,"lineHeight":34}]},"intro":{"fontName":"HelveticaNeue","fontSize":20,"lineHeight":28,"textColor":"#555555"},"caption":{"fontName":"HelveticaNeue","fontSize":13,"lineHeight":19,"textColor":"#666666"},"byline":{"fontName":"HelveticaNeue","fontSize":13,"lineHeight":20,"textColor":"#666666"},"body":{"fontName":"HelveticaNeue","fontSize":18,"lineHeight":29,"paragraphSpacingAfter":14,"linkStyle":{"textColor":"#00704a"}}},"metadata":{"canonicalURL":"https://567politics.com/news/poland-senate-committees-back-abortion-bills-nawrocki-veto-november-2026","datePublished":"2026-11-03T20:18:03.732722Z","dateModified":"2026-11-03T20:19:25.614309Z","authors":["567 Politics staff"],"excerpt":"Panels backed bills ending penalties for helping an abortion and restoring the fetal-anomaly ground. The coalition lacks the votes to override a veto.","thumbnailURL":"https://pub-fac99da959e344fe99d810d309cef7df.r2.dev/photos/article/1836b191-e586-4074-8f1c-dcdf39c643c8/e8165ad4ee29e485ef3c3017a18571b5.jpg","keywords":["pl"],"generatorName":"Frog News","generatorVersion":"1.0"},"components":[{"role":"title","text":"Polish Senate committees back two bills easing abortion law as Nawrocki weighs a veto","textStyle":"headline","layout":"text"},{"role":"intro","text":"Panels backed bills ending penalties for helping an abortion and restoring the fetal-anomaly ground. The coalition lacks the votes to override a veto.","textStyle":"intro","layout":"text"},{"role":"byline","text":"By 567 Politics staff · Published November 3, 2026","textStyle":"byline","layout":"text"},{"role":"photo","URL":"https://pub-fac99da959e344fe99d810d309cef7df.r2.dev/photos/article/1836b191-e586-4074-8f1c-dcdf39c643c8/e8165ad4ee29e485ef3c3017a18571b5.jpg","caption":"A sitting of the Polish Senate, the upper house that votes on the two abortion bills at its Nov. 4–6 sitting (file photo, 2015) · Michał Józefaciuk / Senate of the Republic of Poland, CC BY-SA 3.0 PL (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/pl/deed.en)","accessibilityCaption":"A sitting of the Polish Senate, the upper house that votes on the two abortion bills at its Nov. 4–6 sitting (file photo, 2015)","layout":"photo"},{"role":"caption","text":"A sitting of the Polish Senate, the upper house that votes on the two abortion bills at its Nov. 4–6 sitting (file photo, 2015) · Michał Józefaciuk / Senate of the Republic of Poland, CC BY-SA 3.0 PL (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/pl/deed.en)","textStyle":"caption","layout":"text"},{"role":"body","format":"markdown","text":"Two Polish Senate panels on Tuesday, Nov. 3, backed a pair of bills that would loosen one of Europe's strictest abortion laws. That puts both measures in front of the full Senate at the sitting that opens Wednesday. The votes bring the bills a step closer to President Karol Nawrocki, whose office has said he favors protecting life \"from conception to natural death\" and has not ruled out a veto.\n\nThe first bill would end criminal penalties for people who help a woman end a pregnancy. The second would restore a legal ground for abortion when a fetus has a severe and irreversible defect or an incurable illness. Poland's Constitutional Tribunal struck that ground down in a ruling that took effect in January 2021. The governing coalition passed both bills in the Sejm, the lower house, on Oct. 20. It does not have the three-fifths majority it would need there to override a presidential veto.\n\nThis story sets out what the committees did, what each bill would change, where the parties stand in their own words, what polling shows, and the steps left under Poland's constitution. It follows our earlier coverage of Nawrocki's clashes with the government over [the Constitutional Tribunal](https://567politics.com/news/poland-constitutional-tribunal-swieczkowski-suspended-nawrocki-october-2026) and [Poland's ambassadors](https://567politics.com/news/poland-ambassadors-resign-sikorski-nawrocki-tusk-tribunal-november-2026).\n\n## What the Senate committees did on Tuesday\n\nThe Criminal Code bill went to two committees sitting together: the Legislative Committee and the Committee on Human Rights and the Rule of Law. [Rynek Zdrowia, citing the Polish Press Agency (PAP)](https://www.rynekzdrowia.pl/Prawo/Zmiany-w-prawie-aborcyjnym-coraz-blizej-Senackie-komisje-zdecydowaly-ws-nowelizacji,290815,2.html), reported that Sen. Magdalena Kochan of the Civic Coalition (KO) moved to adopt it without amendments. The motion carried 10 to 4, with no abstentions. [TVP Info](https://www.tvp.info/96280075/senackie-komisje-nie-zglosily-poprawek-do-nowelizacji-dot-czesciowej-dekryminalizacji-aborcji) also reported that the committees proposed no changes.\n\nThe Senate Health Committee took up the second bill, which amends Poland's 1993 family planning law. Lawmakers from the Third Way (Trzecia Droga) alliance first filed it in February 2024. [Rynek Zdrowia reported](https://www.rynekzdrowia.pl/Prawo/Zmiany-w-przepisach-dotyczacych-aborcji-Senackie-komisje-zdecydowaly-o-losie-dwoch-ustaw,290829,2.html) that the Health Committee backed it with three drafting amendments and one change of substance. The bill as passed by the Sejm promises psychological help to \"the person entitled to such help.\" The committee's version promises it to \"that woman\" (both phrases translated from Polish by 567 Politics). If the full Senate adopts any amendment, the bill must go back to the Sejm before it can reach the president.\n\nThe difference matters for timing. If the Senate passes the Criminal Code bill unchanged, it goes straight to Nawrocki. If it amends the family planning bill, the Sejm must vote again first.\n\n## What each bill would change\n\n### The Criminal Code bill\n\nPolish law does not punish a woman for ending her own pregnancy. Article 152 of the Criminal Code instead punishes other people. Under the article's second paragraph, anyone who helps or persuades a woman to end a pregnancy outside the law faces up to three years in prison. The bill, which KO and the Left (Lewica) filed in July 2024, would repeal that paragraph.\n\nThe bill also adds a new paragraph that shields doctors, nurses and midwives from prosecution in set cases. One case is acting to avert a danger to the woman's life or health. Another is when medical evidence shows a high probability of a severe and irreversible fetal defect, or of an incurable illness that threatens the fetus's life.\n\nA similar attempt failed in July 2024, when the Sejm rejected a decriminalization bill 218 to 215. [Notes from Poland](https://notesfrompoland.com/2026/10/21/parliament-approves-liberalisation-of-polands-abortion-laws/) reported that most PSL deputies joined the opposition to defeat it then, and that Prime Minister Donald Tusk afterward said abortion reform would be impossible in this parliamentary term.\n\n### The family planning bill\n\nUnder current law, abortion is legal in Poland in two cases. The first is when the pregnancy threatens the woman's life or health, with no time limit. The second is when the pregnancy results from a crime, up to 12 weeks. A third ground, for severe fetal defects, existed until January 2021. That month the government published an October 2020 ruling by the Constitutional Tribunal that struck it down. The ruling set off weeks of mass street protests.\n\nThe second bill would bring back a version of that ground for severe and irreversible fetal defects or incurable illness. It would also guarantee psychological support within 24 hours to a woman who learns of such a diagnosis. Neither bill would allow abortion on request up to 12 weeks, which KO promised during the 2023 election campaign. Notes from Poland reported that all KO and Left deputies nonetheless voted for both bills.\n\n## How the Sejm voted on Oct. 20\n\nBoth bills passed the Sejm on Oct. 20, as [Politico Europe](https://www.politico.eu/article/poland-parliament-eases-abortion-laws-ichallenge-conservative-president/) and Notes from Poland reported. The decriminalization bill passed 217 to 213, with three abstentions. The fetal-anomaly bill passed by a wider margin, 233 to 203, with one abstention.\n\nThe coalition did not vote as one bloc. Notes from Poland reported that 14 deputies from the Polish People's Party (PSL), a coalition member, voted against the decriminalization bill, including party leader and Deputy Prime Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz. Five PSL deputies voted against the fetal-anomaly bill. Twenty-seven deputies missed the decriminalization vote, among them 10 from PiS, including party leader Jarosław Kaczyński. The outlet noted the bill would likely have failed had they voted.\n\n**Sejm votes on Poland's two abortion bills, Oct. 20, 2026**\n\nVotes of deputies in the 460-seat Sejm. A veto override needs three-fifths of those voting, with at least half of all deputies present.","textStyle":"body","layout":"text"},{"role":"htmltable","html":"
BillForAgainstAbstained
Help with abortion (Criminal Code)2172133
Fetal-anomaly ground (family planning law)2332031
","layout":"text"},{"role":"body","format":"markdown","text":"Source: [Politico Europe](https://www.politico.eu/article/poland-parliament-eases-abortion-laws-ichallenge-conservative-president/)\n\nThe numbers show why a veto would likely stand. With every deputy voting, an override needs 276 votes. Neither bill came within 40 votes of that.\n\n## What the coalition says\n\nSupporters in the coalition describe the bills as a first step that the current parliament can actually pass. On X after the Sejm vote, Katarzyna Kotula of the Left wrote, in words Politico translated: \"The state trusts women. A woman who terminates her own pregnancy is already exempt from criminal punishment. It's time to stop punishing everyone who loves us, worries about us and respects our choices.\"\n\nBarbara Nowacka of KO said she backed the bills while wanting more. \"But I voted for it and will always vote for every change, even the smallest one, that brings Polish women closer to full rights over their own lives,\" she said, according to Politico.\n\nIn the Sejm debate, [Onet's report on the session](https://wiadomosci.onet.pl/kraj/aborcja-znow-na-sejmowej-agendzie-pis-i-konfederacja-przeciw-zmianom/eyy61mk) quoted Urszula Pasławska of PSL asking: \"Will the state pretend the issue does not exist, close its eyes and pretend it does not see these women?\" (translated from Polish). Joanna Wicha of the Left said her party wants the European standard and called decriminalization \"not as big a step as we dream of\" (translated). Deputy Justice Minister Arkadiusz Myrcha said \"the silent state ended on Oct. 15, 2023,\" the date of the last general election (translated).\n\nSejm Speaker Włodzimierz Czarzasty, also of the Left, aimed his remarks at the president. \"By refusing to sign \\[the abortion] legislation, the president is hurting people,\" he said, according to Politico. \"If he wants to hurt women, he will hurt them.\"\n\nSenate Vice-Marshal Magdalena Biejat of the Left told [Gazeta.pl](https://wiadomosci.gazeta.pl/polityka/7,197990,33101947,sejm-uchwalil-teraz-pora-na-senat-wiemy-co-dalej-z-ustawami.html) on Oct. 27 that she expected the Senate to pass the bills without amendments. She said the Left \"want\\[s] to and will keep working\" toward wider abortion rights (translated), and that the immediate goal was to persuade the president to sign at least one of the two bills. If the full Senate adopts the Health Committee's amendment, the family planning bill will not pass unchanged.\n\n## What the opposition and the president's office say\n\nLaw and Justice (PiS), the largest opposition party, voted against both bills. In the Sejm, PiS deputy Anna Milczanowska called them \"an attempt to falsify reality and introduce solutions contrary to the protection of life\" that would weaken \"the constitutional protection of conceived life\" (translated from her remarks in the [official Sejm transcript](https://api.sejm.gov.pl/sejm/term10/proceedings/67/2026-10-20/transcripts/025) and Onet's report).\n\nKarina Bosak of the right-wing Confederation (Konfederacja) moved to reject both bills at first reading. \"A human being does not become a human being only when he can speak and defend his rights,\" she said (translated), according to Onet. After the vote, Confederation co-leader Krzysztof Bosak called it \"a disgrace for the deputies of the current coalition,\" [Do Rzeczy reported](https://dorzeczy.pl/opinie/960114/sejm-przeglosowal-ustawy-aborcyjne-bosak-hanba-dla-poslow.html). \"Now we are counting on President Nawrocki's veto on both abortion laws,\" he said (translated).\n\nThe president's office has not announced a decision and says it will not prejudge one. Nawrocki said during his 2025 campaign that he would not sign legislation easing abortion rules, Politico reported. His chief of staff, Zbigniew Bogucki, said on Polsat News on Oct. 29 that the president \"is for the protection of life from conception to natural death\" (translated), [Polsat News reported](https://www.polsatnews.pl/wiadomosc/2026-10-30/prezydent-przed-decyzja-w-sprawie-aborcji-polacy-dali-nawrockiemu-wskazowke/). Asked whether that meant a veto, he said: \"I cannot say that, because it is always the president's decision\" (translated). He pointed to past rulings of the Constitutional Tribunal, including one from the 1990s under its then-president Andrzej Zoll, and said: \"In Poland, life is protected from conception to natural death.\"\n\nPresidential spokesman Rafał Leśkiewicz was asked on TVN24 whether he could imagine the president signing the bills. \"I don't know whether I can imagine a signature under these laws, because I don't know the president's decision,\" he said, according to [Rynek Zdrowia](https://www.rynekzdrowia.pl/Prawo/Rzecznik-prezydenta-o-ustawie-aborcyjnej-Nie-wiem-czy-jestem-sobie-w-stanie-wyobrazic-podpis-pod-tymi-ustawami,290267,2.html) (translated). He added that Nawrocki had said in the campaign that he \"is an opponent of abortion and is for life, but also said he is ready for a conversation,\" and that it was up to the governing parties to approach the president.\n\nOpponents of the bills often cite Article 38 of the constitution, which in the [English text published by the Constitute Project](https://www.constituteproject.org/constitution/Poland_2009) reads: \"The Republic of Poland shall ensure the legal protection of the life of every human being.\" Milczanowska cited it in the Sejm, together with Article 30 on human dignity.\n\n## Criticism from abortion-rights campaigners\n\nNot every critic of the bills is on the right. The campaign group Legalna Aborcja (Legal Abortion) wrote on X, in words Politico translated: \"What does this mean for women who need abortions now? Nothing, because none of these projects would help them.\"\n\n## What polling shows\n\nPolls show more support for the fetal-anomaly bill than for broader change. A survey by SW Research for [Onet](https://wiadomosci.onet.pl/kraj/karol-nawrocki-podpisze-ustawe-o-aborcji-polacy-wskazali-co-powinien-zrobic/p5b1x4x) interviewed 800 adult Poles online through the SW Panel on Oct. 27–28, 2026. The sample was set by quotas for sex, age and town size. Respondents were asked (translated from Polish): \"The Sejm passed a law that again allows legal termination of pregnancy in cases of severe fetal defects. What do you think President Karol Nawrocki should do with it?\"\n\n**What Poles say Nawrocki should do with the fetal-anomaly bill**\n\nOnline (CAWI) survey of 800 adults, Oct. 27–28, 2026, quota sample by sex, age and town size. Answers to the question quoted in the text.","textStyle":"body","layout":"text"},{"role":"htmltable","html":"
AnswerShare
Sign it60.8%
Veto it12.5%
Send it to the Constitutional Tribunal9.6%
I don't know this bill8.8%
Hard to say8.3%
","layout":"text"},{"role":"body","format":"markdown","text":"Source: [SW Research for Onet](https://wiadomosci.onet.pl/kraj/karol-nawrocki-podpisze-ustawe-o-aborcji-polacy-wskazali-co-powinien-zrobic/p5b1x4x)\n\nSix in 10 said the president should sign it. About one in five chose a veto or a referral to the Tribunal. Among respondents under 24, 62.7% said he should sign and 19.4% said he should veto it. The question asked only about the fetal-anomaly bill, not the decriminalization bill.\n\nThese figures describe the views of a sample of the public. They are not the same as reactions on social media, which this story does not treat as a measure of opinion.\n\n## The Senate vote, the president and a possible veto\n\nThe Senate's 68th sitting is scheduled for Nov. 4–6, 2026, according to the [Senate's official calendar](https://www.senat.gov.pl/prace/posiedzenia/). Under Article 121 of the constitution, the Senate has 30 days from receiving a bill to pass it unchanged, amend it or reject it. The Sejm can override Senate amendments or a rejection by an absolute majority of votes, with at least half of all deputies present.\n\nUnder Article 122, the president then has 21 days to act. He can sign a bill. He can ask the Constitutional Tribunal whether it conforms with the constitution. Or he can veto it and return it to the Sejm. The Sejm can override a veto only by a three-fifths majority, with at least half of all deputies present.\n\n**How the two abortion bills could become law**\n\n1. **Sejm**: passed both bills on Oct. 20\n2. **Senate committees**: backed both on Nov. 3; one with amendments\n3. **Senate vote**: sitting set for Nov. 4–6\n4. **Sejm again**: votes on any Senate amendments by absolute majority\n5. **President**: 21 days to sign, veto or refer to the Constitutional Tribunal\n6. **Veto override**: needs three-fifths of Sejm votes cast\n\nSource: [Constitution of Poland, Articles 121–122 (Constitute Project)](https://www.constituteproject.org/constitution/Poland_2009)\n\nA referral to the Tribunal would carry its own complications. The court is the same body whose 2020 ruling removed the fetal-defect ground. The government disputes the legitimacy of several of its judges, a fight we covered when [the EU Commission said parliament can appoint tribunal judges](https://567politics.com/news/poland-eu-commission-backs-sejm-constitutional-court-judges-tusk-november-2026). The votes also come about a year before the general election due in late 2027, a contest party leaders have already begun to frame, as in [the dispute over Kaczyński's EU remarks](https://567politics.com/news/poland-kaczynski-eu-withdrawal-talks-tusk-referendum-october-2026).\n\n## How this compares with other abortion votes\n\nPoland is not the only place where abortion rules are on the ballot or the legislative agenda this week. In the United States, [Virginia voters decide Tuesday on a reproductive freedom amendment](https://567politics.com/news/virginia-questions-1-2-reproductive-freedom-same-sex-marriage-amendments-november-2026), and Missouri voters decide on [Amendment 3](https://567politics.com/news/missouri-amendment-3-abortion-proposition-a-congressional-map-ballot-measures-november-2026). In Poland, the decision rests with parliament and the president, not with voters directly. How we weigh sources and polls in stories like this one is set out in our [methodology](https://567politics.com/methodology).\n\n## Key facts","textStyle":"body","layout":"text"},{"role":"htmltable","html":"
ItemCriminal Code billFamily planning bill
Main changeEnds penalties for helping an abortionRestores fetal-anomaly ground
Sejm vote, Oct. 20217–213 (3 abstain)233–203 (1 abstain)
Senate committee, Nov. 3Backed 10–4, no amendmentsBacked with 4 amendments
Next stepSenate vote, then presidentSenate vote, Sejm, then president
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