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                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, February 16, 1993                   TAG: 9302160042
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: WARSAW, POLAND                                LENGTH: Short

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WALESA SIGNS STRICT POLISH ANTI-ABORTION LAW

President Lech Walesa signed an anti-abortion law Monday that strictly limits the procedure and punishes doctors who violate the rules with up to two years in prison.

The anti-abortion bill - which reverses Poland's virtual abortion-on-demand regulations from the Communist era - permits abortion in only four situations:

When a panel of doctors certify the pregnancy endangers the mother's life or seriously threatens her health.

When a prosecutor certifies the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest.

When the fetus is determined by prenatal tests to be seriously, irreparably damaged.

And during the course of an emergency action if needed to save the mother's life.

At the height of its use in the late 1980s, abortion was the chief form of birth control in Poland. More than 500,000 abortions were performed annually, ending about half of all pregnancies.

- Associated Press

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