ABSTRACT
On February 15, 1993, President Lech Walesa signed a restrictive antiabortion bill. The bill's passage was not unexpected; it followed an antiabortion campaign of more than three years. This political transformation has brought many necessary positive changes, but, unexpectedly, it has also brought negative changes, especially for the condition of Polish women. These can be observed on at least two levels: economic and legal. On the economic level, the transformation from a communist economy to free-market economy has caused unemployment, which was unknown under communism. On the legal level, changes with respect to women are mainly connected with pressure from the Catholic Church and Christian fundamentalists advocating a complete ban on abortion. In November 1992 the Extraordinary Parliamentary Commission accepted a draft of an antiabortion bill that was more restrictive than the Ethical Code of Physicians and a former draft of the bill. According to the later draft, abortion could be obtained only when a mother's life was threatened.
