Polish PM summons deputy over gay, abortion row

WARSAW, Mar 5 (Reuters) Polish Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski summoned his deputy Roman Giertych for talks today after he made a series of comments about homosexuals and abortion, prompting a rebuke from the European Commission.

Giertych, leader of the far-right League of Polish Families, a junior partner in the conservative-led cabinet, infuriated Kaczynski last week when he called on the European Union to stop ''homosexual propaganda'' and ban abortion.

The European Commission expressed regret at the comments by Giertych, who is Poland's education minister, restating its opposition to discrimination against minorities.

Giertych's ultra-Catholic party, which opposed Poland's EU entry in 2004, has been singled out by the European Parliament as a culprit behind a ''rise in racist, xenophobic, anti-Semitic and homophobic intolerance'' in Poland.

''The prime minister will meet Giertych to talk about last week's remarks,'' Jan Dziedziczak, the government spokesman was quoted as saying by Polish news agency PAP.

Abortion is a hot topic in overwhelmingly Catholic Poland and Kaczynski is facing pressure from coalition partners and his own party to harden his stance on the issue.

Poland has one of the toughest laws on abortion, allowing pregnancy to be terminated only when it threatens the life or health of the mother, when the baby is likely to be permanently disabled or when pregnancy is the result of a crime, such as rape or incest.

The League wants to ban abortion even in these rare cases and an ultra-conservative wing of the ruling Law and Justice also wants to change the constitution to make a liberalisation of the abortion law impossible in the future.

But the prime minister and his twin brother Lech, who is Poland's president, believe the law should not be changed.

Surveys suggest about 20 percent of Poles would back a stricter abortion law and analysts say the row could undermine support for the ruling party among some conservative voters.

''Giertych made a smart move,'' said Marek Migalski, a political analyst at Silesia University in Katowice.

''He is trying to paint Kaczynski as a liberal and take the ultra-conservative people on his side. But Kaczynski will keep him in the government because he still needs him.'' REUTERS PDS HT1815