Poland’s new parliament debates reversing a ban on government funding for in vitro fertilization

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland’s new parliament began debating the reinstatement of government funding for in vitro fertilization as its first legislation following elections in which the conservative party that had banned it lost control of the legislature.

Members of the new centrist majority said in parliament Wednesday that it was symbolic to begin their term with work on abolishing one of the bans introduced by the outgoing right-wing government.

“The reinstatement of IVF funding is the first decision of the democratic majority,” said one of their lawmakers, Agnieszka Pomaska.

The lawmakers stressed that thousands of childless couples in the shrinking nation of some 38 million were waiting for the return of government support for IVF. State funding was introduced in 2013 by a liberal government led by Donald Tusk, but the subsequent conservative government banned it in 2016 in one of its first moves, saying the procedure involved destroying human embryos.

A citizens’ draft seeking to reinstate it was put on hold by the then-ruling Law and Justice party earlier this year. The date of the final vote was not immediately known.

Many Law and Justice lawmakers left the chamber during the discussion to demonstrate their displeasure.

However, an aide to President Andrzej Duda, who is an ally of Law and Justice, said that Duda will probably not use his power of veto against the reinstatement of state funding for IVF.

A coalition of pro-European Union parties won a majority of seats in last month’s general election and has embarked on reversing some of the restrictive or controversial laws.

A new coalition government headed by Tusk is expected to be in place in mid-December, but Duda gave Law and Justice the first shot at forming the Cabinet.