Poland’s parliament will this week discuss a controversial proposal to tighten abortion laws in the country, as opposition politicians and women’s rights groups warn that the country’s conservative government may use the distraction of the coronavirus pandemic to push through the legislation.

Poland already has some of the strictest legislation in Europe on abortion, and previous attempts to tighten the laws further were abandoned after mass protests in 2016. The proposal comes from a citizen initiative, and it is unclear if the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party will support it, but president Andrzej Duda, a PiS ally, has said he would sign the law if it reaches his desk.

“For them, this is the best time to pay the debts they have to ultra-conservative groups,” said Barbara Nowacka, an opposition MP who was active in the protests four years ago. “We are really afraid that they will use the fact that citizens of Poland are really focused on their future and health right now, and not on values, sexual education, women rights.”

On Tuesday, dozens of women protested in central Warsaw, in cars and on bicycles, honking horns and displaying posters against the law. Police used megaphones to warn protesters they risked fines for breaking lockdown regulations.

A woman rides her bicycle in Warsaw during a protest by Polish women’s rights activists. Photograph: Wojtek Radwański/AFP via Getty Images

The Polish proposal comes amid global concerns over access to abortion during the coronavirus pandemic. Last week, Amnesty International called on governments across Europe to ease “onerous administrative requirements to access abortion services”, which it said was making safe access difficult.

Earlier this month, Marie Stopes International estimated that there could be as many as 3 million additional unintended pregnancies and 2.7 million unsafe abortions in the 37 countries in which it works, as well as 11,000 pregnancy-related deaths.

In Poland, abortion is already illegal except in cases of rape, incest, severe foetal abnormalities or in cases where the mother’s life is at risk. In 2016, a citizen’s bill aimed to outlaw even these types of abortion, leading to huge protests in towns and cities across the country. The government backed away from its support.

The bill was re-submitted in a less severe form in 2018, seeking to outlaw abortions in the case of foetal abnormalities. It has since been stalled in parliament but is now due for mandatory review, with discussions expected on Wednesday and Thursday. Some have suggested that this is merely a formality, and they are not expecting the government to push the law through quickly. Others, however, fear the difficulty of protest during the coronavirus pandemic could provide the perfect cover.

There have been protests online, and with people hanging flags in their windows. “But this doesn’t have the same impact as a massive protest on the streets,” said Nowacka.

In an interview with a Catholic news outlet earlier this month, president Duda said “killing disabled children is simply murder” and promised he would sign the law if it reached him. Duda is up for re-election next month, a vote the government is controversially insisting will go ahead, despite the restrictions in place due to the pandemic. PiS has courted a conservative, Catholic voter base with rightwing rhetoric against abortion rights, LGBT rights and so-called “gender ideology”.

Natalia Broniarczyk, of the Abortion Dream Team organisation, said that even without the new legislation, the coronavirus pandemic has made life harder for women seeking abortion. The organisation’s helpline has received around 550 calls in the month since lockdown was imposed in Poland, which is twice as much as during a usual month.

Many Polish women with pregnancies in the first trimester are able to get around the current legislation by ordering pills online for medical abortion at home. Some women were concerned at whether the postal service would still function to deliver pills, while others were considering abortions due to the unexpected difficult economic situation.

“Many people lost their job from one day to the next and they don’t have money even to live. For them, an unwanted pregnancy is the worst scenario,” Broniarczyk said. Some Polish women travel abroad for abortions, something which has also become extremely difficult due to recently imposed travel restrictions.

Rights groups have warned the Polish government not to support the new legislation. “The chaos and anxiety surrounding Covid-19 shouldn’t be used as a distraction from harmful attempts to push through dangerous legislation,” said Hillary Margolis, senior women’s rights researcher at Human Rights Watch.