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Poland's government approved a draft bill to regulate in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) treatment on Tuesday, in a move aimed at attracting voters ahead of presidential and parliamentary elections later this year.

IVF has been performed in Poland for the last 25 years, but traditionally Roman Catholic Poland has so far not passed legislation regulating the treatment, remaining the only European Union member not to have done so.

The Roman Catholic Church opposes in-vitro fertilisation, saying it divorces marital sex from procreation and could result in the destruction of fertilised embryos.

The ruling centre-right Civic Platform party, in power since 2007, has tried in the past to set up a legal framework allowing IVF, but failed because Catholic conservatives in its ranks wanted it explicitly outlawed.

Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz said on Tuesday over 1.5 million couples in Poland, a country of 38 million, are affected by difficulties in having children.

"We will be looking for a wide support for the draft bill on IVF," Kopacz told reporters. "Human dramas, such as infertility, have neither a left- nor a right-wing...