Polish lawmakers on Thursday delayed controversial draft legislation designed to ban the abortion of foetuses with congenital birth defects by sending it to committee, where it could lag for months. Controlled by the governing right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) party, parliament voted against the outright rejection of the bill, which has sparked an outcry among Polish women. The citizen's bill, which is backed by over 800,000 signatures, aims to further tighten Poland's abortion law, which is already one of Europe's most restrictive. Activists insist that the motion would effectively close the door to most legal terminations in Poland, an overwhelmingly Catholic nation. Currently, abortions are only allowed if pregnancy is the result of rape or incest, it poses a threat to the mother's life or if the foetus is deformed. Dozens of Polish women's rights activists used their cars and bicycles to block central Warsaw on Tuesday to protest the draft legislation amid a lockdown aimed at steming the spread of the novel coronavirus. Lawmakers also sent to committee a separate draft aimed at further restricting access to already very limited sex education in public schools. The draft would criminalise any discussions about sex with minors, which supporters argue is necessary to combat paedophilia. Opponents argue it would act as a gag order on teachers providing information to young pupils. An attempt by the PiS government to tighten the abortion law 2016 were scrapped after mass protests across the country by tens of thousands of women dressed in black. mas-via/rl