Prawo aborcyjne w Polsce – rys historyczny
Abortion law in Poland – historical overview

Summary/Abstract: The conditions of legal performing of termination of pregnancy and criminal law regulations that penalise crimes related to abortion are controversial subjects – in legal and social terms. Starting the first Polish penal codification there were a lot of changes in the regulations, among others due to the current political situation. The subject of this paper is abortion in Polish law, id est criminal provisions and acts specifying the conditions of its legal conduct, in historical terms. This study aims to prove that the abortion law in Poland was more or less restrictive – depending on the currently applicable law. The research hypothesis assumed in this study was formulated as follows: the provisions of termination of pregnancy in the Polish legal system have changed over the years. To verify the research hypothesis, a historical research method was used. The main conclusion of this paper is that the normative content of the provisions of the Polish criminal law which penalises crimes related to abortion and of the acts which regulate conditions of its legal admissibility – has undergone many changes and still are a controversial topic.

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