Andrzej Duda vetoed the law on birth control pills

President Andrzej Duda on Friday vetoed changes to a pharmaceutical law allowing people over the age of 15 to buy so-called 'morning after' pills, thereby angering leftist and liberal politicians. This was reported by UNN with reference to Rzeczpospolita.

Details

Poland's conservative President Andrzej Duda on Friday vetoed a bill to facilitate women's access to the "morning-after" contraceptive pill. As explained by Andrzej Duda's office, "the president, listening in particular to the voice of parents, could not accept legal decisions allowing children under eighteen to have access to medicines for contraceptive use without medical supervision and bypassing the role and responsibility of parents.

At the same time, Duda declared his openness to the solutions provided by the law under discussion for adult women (over 18 years of age).

Reference

An amendment to the Pharmacy Act makes one of the hormonal contraceptives, ulipristal acetate, available over-the-counter to people over 15 years of age. The pill containing it (ellaOne) must be taken a maximum of 120 hours after sexual intercourse.

Since July 2017, so-called 'morning after' pills have been sold in Catholic Poland only with a prescription.

The new law would make them available without a prescription to people over the age of 15, reversing a restriction imposed in 2017 by the former government of the nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party, of which Duda is an ally.

Lawmakers from the New Left party, part of a broad pro-European coalition government, reacted with fury.

Superstition and conservative ideology triumphed over science and women's rights. But only for a moment

Recall

In 2023, Polish activist Justyna Wyczynska was found guilty of supplying pregnant women with abortion pills.

Earlier UNN reported that women's rights advocates in Poland, celebrating International Women's Day, protested against the almost complete ban on abortion in the country.