What if Duda does not sign the law on the “after-pill”? Minister Leszczyna about “plan B”
On Tuesday, the president was visited by MPs from the Coalition Parliamentary Club of the Left. At the press conference after the meeting, they expressed their hope that their arguments would influence the head of state's decision to sign the bill amending the pharmaceutical law. If this does not happen, the Minister of Health has already prepared an emergency plan.
A delegation of the Left recently visited Andrzej Duda at the Presidential Palace. – We presented the president with all possible arguments (regarding emergency contraception for people over 15 years of age – ed.) – of a medical nature, of a social nature, of a political nature. I hope that the president will collect all these arguments, arrange them in his head, calmly, think them through – that's what he declared to us, said Anna Maria Żukowska, chairwoman of the Left parliamentary club, after the meeting with the president.
But what if Duda does not want to sign the bill? It is worth recalling that the Senate approved it in early March. However, the President announced that he did not intend to sign it, stating, among other things, that the availability of a pharmaceutical product without a prescription is a definite “exaggeration”.
“Plan B” of the ministry
– I really don't understand the president at all. I don't know why she doesn't listen to experts, specialists, doctors – everyone who says that this pill is a safe emergency contraception – said Izabela Leszczyna on RMF FM in the “Afternoon conversation” program.
She admitted that her ministry “must have a 'plan B'.” – We have prepared a regulation, I am talking to pharmacists and the Pharmaceutical Chamber. This tablet will be available on the basis of a pharmaceutical prescription – she announced what would happen if the law was not amended. Then a pharmacist (because it is a medical profession) will be able to write a prescription, but not a pharmacy technician.
Leszczyna emphasizes that if the use of emergency contraception – which is the “morning-after pill” – is not consistent with the worldview of a given pharmacist, he will not be able to “cover himself with the conscience clause.” Why? Because in this situation “no embryo is formed.” – The conscience clause – as I understand it – can be used when we talk about destroying an embryo or fetus. There is no such situation here, she noted.
