Govt. spokeswoman: update to IVF bill ‘before recess’

The government’s proposed new IVF bill is to be published on 10 March, having first been rubberstamped by the cabinet’s permament committee.

While discussions surrounding IVF in Poland have been ongoing for years, Kidawa-Błońska highlighted that a recent mix-up, where a mother gave birth to another woman’s child owing to an alleged medical error, raised new legal questions over the treatment.

“There must be clear procedures and principles on how this method may be used,” she told Polish Radio on Friday.

“Poland is the last country in Europe which does not have such regulations,” Kidawa-Błońska added.

IVF treatment in Poland was unregulated until the ruling Civic Platform coalition passed a bill on the matter in 2012.

Even though the party had voiced its willingness to push through an IVF bill as far back as 2007, the project ran aground over state funding for the procedure, with rifts among the party’s liberal and conservative groups also delaying a debate on the procedure.

Back in 2012, the major conservative opposition Law and Justice party, which is generally aligned with the Catholic church on matters concerning IVF, went as far as to propose a bill which would see a two-year prison sentence on couples trying to have children through the treatment. (jb)