Polish Sejm to resume work on abortion bills following governing coalition agreement

Committee revival and coalition agreement

The Sejm's Extraordinary Committee on abortion proposals will convene on Thursday, 8 October 2026, at 9:00 AM, holding its first formal working session in over two years. The convocation follows a direct meeting between Prime Minister Donald Tusk and Sejm Marshal Włodzimierz Czarzasty, which cleared the path for the Sejm Presidium to approve the schedule before 18:00 on Wednesday. The formal motion to resume proceedings was put forward by Civic Coalition lawmaker Dorota Łoboda. Czarzasty noted that prior legislative efforts focused on transcribing foreign same-sex marriage certificates, which exceeded 500 cases, before returning attention to reproductive healthcare laws.

Marshal Czarzasty confirmed the timeline on social media shortly after the Presidium concluded its deliberations.

The Presidium of the Sejm, at the request of MP Dorota Łoboda, has convened the committee on abortion law for tomorrow at 9:00. One must fight consistently for women's rights and not give up.

Scope of the two draft bills

The committee will focus its Thursday agenda on two separate legislative drafts rather than the full slate of four bills currently assigned to the body. The first measure, submitted jointly by the Left and Civic Coalition in July 2024, introduces the partial decriminalization of abortion performed with the pregnant person's consent and removes criminal liability for assisting in self-managed terminations. The second proposal, submitted by the Third Way parliamentary club in February 2024, aims to restore the legal status that existed before October 2020. That change would re-establish legal termination in cases involving severe and irreversible fetal defects or fatal conditions.

Two additional bills that permit abortion on demand up to the 12th week of pregnancy, prepared independently by Civic Coalition and the Left in late 2023, will remain on the committee's docket for later review. Parliamentary leaders plan to advance the decriminalization and fetal defect measures quickly to enable a plenary vote in late October. This timeline aligns with the sixth anniversary of the Constitutional Tribunal ruling on 22 October 2026, a date when civic groups have organized demonstrations across Polish regional capitals.

Political gridlock and parliamentary delays

The planned session follows more than two years of political hesitation and procedural obstacles within the governing majority. An earlier version of the decriminalization proposal was rejected on the Sejm floor in July 2024 when several coalition deputies voted against the bill or abstained. A subsequent attempt to restart committee deliberations on 14 September 2026 in room 312 was cancelled shortly before its scheduled 16:00 start time. The Secretariat of the Health Committee informed lawmakers that the session could not proceed because the Ministry of Health had not submitted its formal position on legislative prints 223 and 611.

Minister for Equality Katarzyna Kotula previously described the cross-party deadlock that stalled committee work.

Work got blocked because everyone came with their own parliamentary bill that they defend and there is no room for maneuver.

Following what Left parliamentary leader Anna Maria Żukowska characterized as decisive coalition negotiations on Tuesday, the governing parties reached a procedural compromise to unlock committee deliberations.

Public opinion and next steps

Polish public opinion regarding the resumption of legislative work on abortion remains closely divided. A national survey conducted by IBRiS in June 2026 found that 44.7% of respondents favor the Sejm continuing work on abortion liberalization bills, while 44.4% oppose further parliamentary activity on the subject, with 10.9% expressing no opinion. Support for legislative action is concentrated among government backers, where 76% of voters aligned with the ruling coalition endorse parliamentary efforts to change current abortion laws.

The extraordinary committee will open discussions at 9:00 AM in Warsaw, where lawmakers will review legal amendments and establish a reporting timeline before submitting the two drafts for floor debates.