The signatures were handed over to officials at the Sejm lower house of parliament by the Life and Family Foundation (ŻIR), Polish state news agency PAP reported.
The group's Kaja Godek told reporters: “We meet today to celebrate the fact that the Polish people are in favour of life, that they don’t want the protection of life to be an empty slogan.”
She added: “We are pleased that so many people demand the protection of unborn children.”
For the citizens’ bill to be debated in parliament, it had to be backed by at least 100,000 people, public broadcaster Polish Radio’s IAR news agency reported.
Godek, whose Life and Family Foundation collected the signatures, told reporters that MPs were due to start processing the new anti-abortion bill within the next three months.
“This will be the first test of whether lawmakers back up their words with deeds,” she said.
'Abortion is Murder'
According to its drafters, the new anti-abortion bill aims to “tighten the protection of the life of children at the earliest stage of development.”
Godek said the proposed legislation represented a response to “systemic abortion assistance that has grown in Poland in recent years.”
Entitled "Abortion is Murder," the new bill foresees a ban on the public promotion of activities aiding the termination of pregnancy in Poland or abroad, officials said.
The proposed legislation would also ban public appeals for the termination of pregnancy and information campaigns about ways to terminate pregnancy in Poland and abroad, according to officials.
Moreover, the bill envisages fines for “the production, recording, ordering, purchase, storage, possession, presentation, transportation and sending of printed material, recorded material or other objects or data media featuring such content,” reporters were told.
Such activities would carry a penalty of two years’ imprisonment, the PAP news agency reported.
Meanwhile, those found guilty of urging a woman to have an abortion would face up to three years in prison, officials said.
Those found guilty of “persuading a woman to terminate pregnancy” if “the conceived child is able to live independently outside the body of the pregnant woman,” could receive a prison sentence of between six months and eight years, according to officials.
Also under the bill, if a woman dies as a result of abortion, the person who persuaded her to terminate the pregnancy could face up to 12 years in prison, the PAP news agency reported.
(pm/gs)
Source: IAR, PAP, polskieradio24.pl