How women are resisting Poland’s abortion ban

By Costanza Spocci
26 May 2022

Warsaw, Poland – On a cold, hazy December morning, the Ryz sisters stand on a sidewalk of a busy street in Warsaw.

“Shall we go to church?” 24-year-old Olympia asks her sister, Melania, grinning and holding up a dozen pink, yellow and grey stickers with the words, “Abortion is OK”, and the hotline numbers and social media profiles of Polish pro-choice organisations.

Continued: https://www.aljazeera.com/features/longform/2022/5/26/how-women-are-resisting-polands-abortion-ban


‘Her heart was beating too’ – Poles protest against strict abortion law

WARSAW, Nov 6
Reuters

 Thousands of people gathered in cities across Poland on Saturday to protest against strict abortion laws after a pregnant woman's death reignited public debate on the issue in one of Europe's most devoutly Catholic countries.

A ruling by Poland's Constitutional Tribunal
that abortion on the grounds of foetal defects contravened the constitution
came into effect in January, triggering a near total ban on pregnancy
terminations and widespread protests.

Continued: https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/her-heart-was-beating-too-poles-protest-against-strict-abortion-law-2021-11-06/


Death of pregnant woman ignites debate about abortion ban in Poland

By Anna Wlodarczak-semczuk and Kacper Pempel, Reuters
Nov 5, 2021

The death of a pregnant Polish woman has reignited debate over abortion in one of Europe's most devoutly Catholic countries, with activists saying she could still be alive if it were not for a near total ban on terminating pregnancies.

Tens of thousands of Poles took to the streets to protest in January this year when a Constitutional Tribunal ruling from October 2020 that terminating pregnancies with foetal defects was unconstitutional came into effect, eliminating the most frequently used case for legal abortion.

Continued: https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/death-pregnant-woman-ignites-debate-about-abortion-ban-poland-2021-11-05/


Activists on the horror of Poland’s near-total abortion ban

Despite mass protests, global criticism, and already strict abortion laws, the country’s government has rolled back women’s rights even further

1 February 2021
Brit Dawson

Women in Poland right now face the most significant rollbacks on fundamental rights in recent history. Last week (January 27), the country’s right wing government moved to implement a near-total ban on abortion, despite the ruling sparking mass protests and global criticism when it was first declared three months ago.

Pro-choice activists immediately took to the streets and social media, leading the biggest protests in the country’s recent history. In November, after almost two weeks of demonstrations, the government announced that it was delaying the abortion ban. Now, however, it’s been enforced with immediate effect.

Continued: https://www.dazeddigital.com/politics/article/51808/1/activists-on-the-horror-of-poland-near-total-abortion-ban


Polish women’s lives at risk as illegal near-total abortion ban takes effect

28th January 2021

As of yesterday 27 January, a near-total ban on abortion has become the reality for women in Poland as the October 2020 judgement of the country’s Constitutional Tribunal was published in the journal of laws.

This unlawful judgement would remove the possibility for women to access abortion in cases of severe and irreversible foetal defects, and threaten doctors who provide abortion care with 3 years in prison. The wording, which dismisses women’s wellbeing as a valid reason for termination of pregnancy, opens the way to potential further bans of abortion in cases of rape and incest.

Continued: https://www.ippfen.org/news/polish-womens-lives-risk-illegal-near-total-abortion-ban-takes-effect


“They’re uncompromising”: How the young transformed Poland’s abortion protests

Four years ago, Polish women went on strike over an abortion ban. Now, a younger, fiery generation has joined them.

Magdalena Muszel, Grzegorz Piotrowski
11 December 2020

The protests in Poland over the government’s plans to further tighten abortion restrictions began in October – they haven’t stopped since. Now, some are calling it the “cardboard revolution” in reference to the handmade placards that have become a distinctive feature of the protests. But what’s novel about the movement isn’t the ubiquitous signage – it’s the young age of its participants.

When looking through the crowds at the protests, it quickly becomes clear that most participants appear to be in their early twenties. That might explain the radicalism of the movement’s chants and slogans, but also it’s creativity and spontaneity.

Continued: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/can-europe-make-it/theyre-uncompromising-how-the-young-transformed-polands-abortion-protests/


Thousands protest across Poland against curbs on abortion access

by Alicja Ptak, Lewis Macdonald
OCTOBER 23, 20201

WARSAW/GDYNIA, Poland (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of people protested across Poland on Friday in defiance of tight coronavirus restrictions, following Thursday’s ruling by the Constitutional Tribunal that imposes a near-total ban on abortion in the predominantly Roman Catholic country.

The court announced that abortions due to foetal defects were unconstitutional, ending the most common of the few legal grounds for abortion, and setting Poland further apart from the European mainstream.

Continued: https://www.reuters.com/article/poland-abortion-idUSKBN2780UO


Protesters gather after Polish court supports almost total ban on abortion

Curbing access to procedure a long-standing ambition of country's ruling party

Thomson Reuters
Posted: Oct 22, 2020

Protesters gathered across Poland on Thursday after the Constitutional Tribunal ruled that abortion due to fetal defects was unconstitutional, banning the most common of the few legal grounds for ending a pregnancy in the largely Catholic country.

After the ruling goes into effect, abortion will only be permissible in Poland in cases of rape, incest or when a mother's health and life are in danger, which make up only about two per cent of legal terminations conducted in recent years.

Continued: https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/poland-court-abortion-law-1.5773722


Citizen initiatives on abortion and sex education debated in Parliament

Citizen initiatives on abortion and sex education debated in Parliament

km/ajk/jc
15.04.2020

Two citizen initiatives, on abortion and sex education were debated in Parliament on Wednesday. Both were submitted by conservative pro-life and pro-family groups and both attracted the statutory number of signatures (100,000) needed for such initaitives to be debated. The proposals are supported by the Catholic Church.

Similar proposals in the past have led to sizable street protests. However, the current Coronavirus restrictions on public assembly have led to the protests being conducted online, in cars and from balconies of apartments.

Continued: https://polandin.com/47575354/citizen-initiatives-on-abortion-and-sex-education-debated-in-parliament