Polish women protest against plan to tighten abortion law
Poland has one of the strictest abortion laws in Europe.
Thousands of people have joined a women’s protest in Warsaw and other Polish cities, fighting back against the latest attempt by the conservative government to restrict abortion.
In Warsaw, they held banners including “Free choice” and “A woman is a human being” and chanted slogans demanding reproductive freedom.
Poland has one of the strictest abortion laws in Europe, allowed only if the woman’s life is at risk, the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest or the foetus is damaged.
The proposed legislation would still allow abortions in cases where the mother’s life is at risk or the pregnancy results from a crime.
But it would ban abortions of irreparably sick or impaired foetuses and those with Down’s syndrome.
In Warsaw, protesters gathered at the seat of the influential Roman Catholic bishops, who are urging the further tightening of one of Europe’s strictest anti-abortion laws.
A protest of hundreds in Wroclaw included a sign that said “I will not give birth to a dead baby.”
The European Union’s commissioner for human rights Nils Muiznieks and UN experts are urging the parliament to reject the bill.
The proposal was brought by a civic organisation and is now at the commission stage in parliament.
