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