Poland’s pro-European government announced on Friday that it was launching a “Plan B” to liberalize access to the morning-after pill in Poland, overturning a veto of the reform by conservative President Andrzej Duda, AFP reported.

The legal dispute in Poland comes at a time when the country has seen a deterioration in women’s reproductive rights during the eight years of the Law and Justice (PiS) party.

In keeping with its campaign promises, the pro-European coalition in power since December passed a bill allowing free access to the pill after 15 years. At the moment, in Poland it is allowed to prescribe morning-after pills only on the basis of a medical prescription.

“Not younger than 18”

But Duda, an ally of PiS and an outspoken Catholic, decided to “send the amendment to the pharmaceutical law back to parliament, asking it to review the law (to veto it),” according to the president’s statement on Friday.

The head of state motivated his refusal by observing “children’s health protection norms”.

Andrzej Duda “cannot agree with legal decisions that allow children under the age of 18 to receive contraceptives without medical supervision and without taking into account the role and responsibility of parents,” the press release said.

However, he “declared himself open to the decisions provided by the relevant law for adult women (aged 18 and over).”

Plan B

“We are launching plan B,” Prime Minister Donald Tusk responded to X, regretting that the president did not take advantage of “the opportunity to stand on the side of women.”

Anticipating a presidential veto, the government announced it would bypass Duda’s blockade by allowing pharmacists to write prescriptions for the pills.

“The regulation is in the final stages of consultation (…) This pill will be available by prescription” issued by a pharmacist starting May 1, Health Minister Izabela Leshchyna said on Friday.

In her opinion, the president “behaved hypocritically”.

“You cannot declare yourself a defender of life, oppose abortion and at the same time say that emergency contraception, which is absolutely safe and available in 25 countries of the European Union, is bad,” she said on TVN24. .