Trzymając się Konstytucji: o prawnym znaczeniu pierwszego orzeczenia aborcyjnego w Polsce
Adhering to the Constitution: On the legal importance of the first abortion judgment in Poland

Summary/Abstract: In 1997 the Polish Constitutional Tribunal held that the so-called ‘social premise’ for the permissible termination of pregnancy is unconstitutional. As the judgment had been issued before the 1997 Polish Constitution entered into force, one can raise some doubts concerning the legal importance of this ruling. The key question is: What are the effects of the first abortion judgment’ today? Does the 1997 Constitution preclude the introduction of the social premise? The paper aims to answer these general questions. The contribution to the doctrinal discussion is twofold. First, the paper offers a new interpretation of the effects of the first abortion judgment and certain provisions of the 1997 Constitution. Second, it challenges the view that this judgment and/or the Constitution exclude introducing the social premise for permissible abortion. The paper claims that the legal importance of the first abortion judgment to the legislator is less than constitutional doctrine and the Tribunal suggest. Taking into account the findings of the Constitutional Tribunal in this judgment, the legislator should not adopt the social premise in its exact 1996 wording. However, the constitutionality of the social premise as such should be recognized as unsettled.

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