Warsaw (AFP) - Poland's Catholic Church on Wednesday called for a total abortion ban, as pro-life activists seek to tighten the law that is already one of the most restrictive in Europe.

The abortion law dating from 1993 in the EU member state where 90 percent of residents identify themselves as Roman Catholic bans all terminations except when the pregnancy results from rape or incest, poses a health risk to the mother or when the foetus is severely deformed.

"When it comes to the life of the unborn, we can't remain at the current compromise set out in the (1993) law," Polish bishops wrote in a letter to be read in all parishes across the country on Sunday.

"We call on people of goodwill, believers and nonbelievers, to act so as to fully protect the life of the unborn from a legal point of view."

The citizen's bill tabled this month in parliament by pro-life groups does not go as far as a total ban but it does call for a tightening of the law so as to only allow abortions to save the mother's life.

Individuals who perform illegal abortions would also be punished by up to five years in jail, instead of the current maximum of two years.

Feminist groups estimate that between 100,000 and 150,000 women either undergo illegal abortions in Poland or turn to clinics abroad.

Legal abortions in the country of 38 million people are limited to around 700 to 1,800 per year.

The new abortion bill needs 100,000 signatures to be examined by the parliament, which is controlled by the conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party -- a likely event that could be a dilemma for its leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski.

While the pro-life proposal is in line with the party's values, local media have speculated that Kaczynski could be loathe to tackle the hot button issue that divides Poles, especially since he is already embroiled in disputes over controversial reforms to the constitutional court.

An opinion poll published last week by the centrist daily Dziennik Gazeta Prawna found that 51 percent of Poles want the existing abortion law to be liberalised.