Polish parliament backs easier access to morning-after pill

Poland saw a rollback of women's reproductive rights during the conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party's eight-year rule, targeting access to abortion as well as in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) and emergency contraception.

The pro-EU coalition came to power on pledges to ease those restrictions and passed a bill intended to remove obstacles by providing free access to the morning-after pill from the age of 15.

But the change, passed in the parliament by 224 votes to 196, will still need to be signed into law by Poland's President Andrzej Duda, a PiS ally.

Duda has not spoken publicly on whether he would back easing the restrictions.

His aide, Malgorzata Paprocka, said earlier this month that Duda had "doubts... regarding the age indicated in the legislation", adding he would make the decision once the law is adopted in the parliament.

Last month, the ruling coalition also submitted a bill in the parliament to liberalise the country's near-total abortion ban and allow legal abortion up to the 12th week of pregnancy.

There is no date for parliament to vote on the proposal, but it faces an uphill battle as only two out of three coalition parties back such changes.

The minor coalition partner, the centrist Third Way, said it would submit its own draft to change abortion laws, but only after holding a national referendum on the matter.