The new Polish government has already approved a bill on January 24 that opens up free access to the "morning-after pill".

Both medical procedures were strictly limited by the previous nationalist-populist government.

The center-right Civic Coalition (KO), led by Tusk, is "ready to submit" a bill allowing "legal and safe abortion up to the 12th week of pregnancy", the head of the government stated at a press conference.

A date for the parliament to vote on the two proposals has not been set, but women's rights organizations have urged lawmakers to act quickly.

"We are aware that the legislative path to implement the social demand for legal, safe and free abortion has just begun", said Agnieszka Czerederecka from the non-profit organization Women's Strike.

"It's time", reacted Antonina Lewandowska from the women's rights group Federa, quoted by the Polish news agency PAP, calling the announcement the "first step in a very long marathon".

In Poland, a country with a strong Catholic tradition, abortion is allowed only in cases of rape or incest or when the mother's life is in danger.

In 2020, the Constitutional Court sided with the then-populist-nationalist government, declaring abortions for fetal malformations "unconstitutional".

In December, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) condemned Poland for "violating the right to private life" after a young woman was prevented from having an abortion despite the "existence of fetal anomalies".

The Left (Lewica), a party that is a member of the government coalition that won the elections last October, has since submitted two legislative proposals to parliament: one aims to decriminalize assisting in abortion, and the other seeks to liberalize abortion in Poland.

Another partner in the Civic Coalition in the government coalition, the Third Way (Christian Democrats), opposes such extensive liberalization of the right to abortion.

This grouping, formed by the Poland 2050 party of the lower house parliament speaker Szymon Holownia, and the Polish People's Party (PSL), proposes a "return to the old law" from 1993, which provided for very limited abortion rights.

Since taking power, the new pro-European coalition has already restored public funding for in vitro fertilization.

The government as a whole approved a bill on January 24 that opens up free access to the "morning-after pill" from the age of 15.

"The issue has been finalized; the bill will be sent to parliament", Tusk said after a meeting of the Council of Ministers.

According to this draft law, the morning-after pill will be "accessible without a prescription", he assured.

A medical prescription will still be necessary for girls under the age of fifteen, as was the case before the restrictions introduced in 2017 by the nationalist-populist government and ratified by President Andrzej Duda, who is still in office.

"I don't want to go into details, but it takes just a bit of imagination to understand how this contraceptive medicine works. Time plays a key role here, and the fact that a prescription was needed often meant that, in many places in Poland, emergency contraception was not effectively available to those affected", explained Tusk.