After growing protests from Polish women and an embarrassing debate in the European Parliament, Poland's governing party retreated Thursday from a proposed law that would have made virtually all abortions illegal.
Jaroslaw Kaczynski, leader of the party, the right-wing Law and Justice Party, said that while the government agreed with the intent of such a law, it opposed the version proposed by an anti-abortion group.
“Observing the social developments, we have come to a conclusion that this legislation will have an opposite effect to the one that was intended,” he said. “This is not the right way to proceed.”
