Eugenic abortion and in vitro fertilization in the context of state policy aimed at increasing fertility rates and promoting birth-defect-free childbearing in Poland – a review

Recent waves of popular protests against the law for limiting abortion has hit Poland in the wake of Parliamentary decisions, firstly adopting and then repudiating a draft civic amendment to the Act on ‘Family planning, human embryo protection, and circumstances for permitting abortion’. This had been civically introduced as a proposed total ban on induced abortion in Poland. In the past, so called ‘Abortion Act’ of 1956, brought about 50% abortion rate of all pregnancies in Poland and other East Central European Countries. Upon changing the law in 1993, the number of abortions in Poland have decreased significantly down to the low rates observed on most Western European countries. At the beginning of the 1990s, the average Polish woman bore more than two children, thereby ensuring demographic renewal. At present, however, the average Polish women gives birth to 1.3 children which leads to depopulation. At the start of the 1990s, the average Polish woman gave birth to her first child at 23.5 years of age, whereas now the age has shifted to almost 29 years. In such a context, current discussions have elevated the issues of in vitro fertilization (IVF), as well as eugenic abortion due to birth defects.