PO, Nowoczesna, dismiss, fine MPs after abortion vote

Civic Platform (PO) dismissed three MPs, while other opposition grouping Nowoczesna fined 10 of its representatives after they voted against, or didn’t vote at all to move forward a draft bill liberalizing country’s abortion laws. Marek Biernacki, Joanna Fabisiak, and Jacek Tomczak, all PO MPs were removed from the party after they voted against the bill and party’s discipline. Nowoczesna MPs who failed to take part in a vote and for that were fined for PLN 1,000. The bill was defeated by nine votes, as even some of the conservative politicians, including Law and Justice (PiS) leader Jarosław Kaczyński voted to further proceed with it and discuss it in the parliamentary committe. Three liberal Nowoczesna MPs said they are suspending their membership in the party “which inactively supported a law straight from medieval ages.” After the vote, one of the Nowoczesna politicians who did not vote, explained herself saying that she “did not know that her vote would matter.” With the liberal bill being thrown out, a conservative motion has been approved and sent to a parliamentary committee for further proceedings. The new bill would ban abortions due to irreversible damage to the fetus. Of Poland’s 1,100 or so legal abortions in 2016, 1,042 were done due to that reason. A previous attempt by PiS to further restrict abortion laws in 2016 has been blocked by mass public protests. In Poland, abortion is illegal except in cases of rape, when the woman's life is in jeopardy, or if the fetus is irreparably damaged.