Tighter abortion laws

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WARSAW, Dec 15 (Reuters) Even under Poland's strict laws, Alicja Tysiac says she should have been allowed an abortion.

When Tysiac, who suffers from an acute eye disease, found she was pregnant for a third time in 2000, she was told by a doctor that the pregnancy, if carried to term, could leave her blind.

She asked for an abortion but approval was delayed until she had passed the 12-week limit for the procedure.

After the birth of her third child, Tysiac's eyesight degenerated until she was almost totally blind, unable to care for her children.

Now 36, she is registered as disabled.

Tysiac has taken Poland to the European Court of Human Rights saying her rights were violated. But even as she fights her case, a movement within overwhelmingly Roman Catholic Poland wants to make having an abortion more difficult.

Polish law, in force since 1993, allows abortion only when a pregnancy threatens the life or health of the mother, when the baby is likely to be permanently handicapped or when pregnancy originates from a crime, for example rape or incest.

This gives Poland some of the toughest abortion laws in Europe, where most states permit abortion in all circumstances if it is carried out within 12 weeks of conception.

But an alliance of priests and conservative politicians -- including the ultra-nationalist League of Polish Families which is part of the ruling coalition, -- wants to make all abortion in Poland illegal.

It is unlikely to succeed -- both mainstream politicians and public opinion seem opposed -- but some abortion rights campaigners fear the drive may lead to a crackdown on wider women's rights in the country.

''UNACCEPTABLE'' The alliance wants to modify the constitution to add the right to ''life protection from the moment of conception''.

It has already pushed through parliament a ''National Programme for Support of the Family'' to limit access to contraception. It argues that family planning, as well as being immoral and unhealthy, is contributing to a fall in population.

The population of Poland, now just over 38 million, is declining by around 100,000 a year, partly because of emigration, but also due to a low birth rate of 107.8 births per 10,000.

''Every ideology that excuses divorces, contraception, sterilisation, prostitution, pornography, paedophilia or other sexual perversions is unacceptable,'' Anna Sobecka, an independent Catholic member of parliament, said during a debate sponsored by supporters of the National Programme.

Marian Pilka of the ruling conservative Law and Justice Party agrees. ''The fact that contraception is damaging to health is as obvious as the fact that alcohol and cigarettes are dangerous,'' he argued during the same parliamentary debate.

Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski, also of the Law and Justice Party, has said he is reluctant to change abortion laws he described as ''a compromise that is better not discussed''.

Kaczynski, and his twin brother Lech who is president, raised eyebrows in May when they formed the coalition with the League of Polish Families.