A woman wearing a face mask walks on a street in central Warsaw, Poland, on March 20, 2021. The government of Poland announced a new nationwide partial lockdown on Friday after the cumulative number of COVID-19 cases since the start of the pandemic exceeded two million in the country.(Photo: Xinhua)

Poland's opposition on Monday denounced a government measure obliging doctors to draw up a register of pregnancies, arguing it would be a "new tool of repression against women."

This latest row comes in a country where it is already extremely difficult for women to get access to an abortion following controversial changes in the law.

Under a decree issued by Health Minister Adam Niedzielski, pregnancies must now be recorded in the register alongside illnesses past and present, medical visits, treatment and blood group.

The health ministry said such information would help any doctor - in Poland or abroad - assist their patients.

Opposition politicians and campaigners object that the online medical records could also be accessible to prosecutors' offices controlled by the ruling populist nationalists, subject to a court order.

The European Union has repeatedly warned Warsaw about political interference in its judiciary.

Liberal deputy Kamila Gasiuk-Pihowicz told journalists the registry was to "be able to persecute and control Polish women, create a new tool of repression, of control, of state political influence on our lives, on our health, on our families."

Joanna Pietrusiewicz, president of the Childbirth with Dignity Foundation, told the Gazeta Wyborcza daily: "In another era, the transfer of such information into the system would not have raised concerns."

"But in the current situation for us it is an unequivocal signal of yet another attempt by the state to interfere in women's lives."

AFP