October 5, 2016
By Karolina Chorvath
Ground Truth Project
It was pouring rain, but across Poland, women donned in black and holding umbrellas flooded the streets Monday. Tens of thousands cut work to protest a bill calling for a total ban on abortion.
Poland’s current abortion law is already one of the strictest in the EU. Women can only have abortions in cases of rape or incest, a threat to the mother’s life or health, or severe damage to the fetus. Under the bill proposed by the reigning conservative, nationalist Law and Justice party (PiS), all abortions would be criminalized and women could be jailed for miscarriages.
“[This] would mean living in fear,” said Urszula Turkiewicz, 28, an English teacher and translator in Warsaw. “Fear of being sexually active, fear of being assaulted and having to go through pregnancy and childbirth… fear of not being able to get proper medical care if they do get pregnant [by choice].”
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Source: Ground Truth Project