Polish court throws out $16 fine for swearing at anti-abortion protest

PAUL WALDIE, EUROPE CORRESPONDENT
February 5, 2024

It has taken three years, two guilty verdicts and a lot of frayed nerves, but a Polish court has finally thrown out the $16 fine Julia Landowska received for swearing during an anti-government rally in Gdansk.

Ms. Landowska, a 23-year-old medical student, was charged by the police in 2021 after she took part in a demonstration against new restrictions on abortion. At the time, women across Poland were protesting a decision by the country’s Constitutional Court that banned access to abortion in all circumstances except cases of sexual assault, incest or if the mother’s life or health were at risk.

Continued: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/world/article-poland-abortion-protester-fine/

05.02.2024

News

Donald Tusk

European Convention on Human Rights

European Court of Human Rights

Julia Landowska

Law and Justice party

Michal Romanowski

Poland Constitutional Tribunal

Andorran women take to the streets to demand that abortion is no longer a crime

SATURDAY 7 OCTOBER 2023

As part of the International Day for the Right to Abortion [1], a demonstration was held in Andorra on 30 September. Around 150 activists responded to a call from the Stop Violències association, which is fighting for the decriminalization of abortion, which in Andorra is considered a crime, even after rape.

This small state, a "parliamentary theocracy" wedged between France and Spain, is governed by medieval legislation. Two co-princes decide on women’s right to control their own bodies: the Bishop of Urgell, a traditionalist opposed to abortion, and... the President of the French Republic.

SOLIDARITY WITH VANESSA MENDOZA CORTÉS
Vanessa Mendoza Cortés, president of Stop Violències, has been taken to court by the Andorran president, Xavier Espot Zamora, for “defamation”.

Continued: https://internationalviewpoint.org/spip.php?article8269

07.10.2023

Commentary

Collectif pour les droits des femmes 66

pro-choice protests

Stop Violències

Vanessa Mendoza Cortes

‘We think about American, Polish, Hungarian women’: French protest to defend abortion rights

Issued on: 03/10/2023
France 24, Juliette MONTILLY
Video: 5:12 minutes

Strictly forbidden in some countries, severely restricted in others: abortion rights remain fragile around the world. At the rally organised in Paris by the collective "Abortion in Europe: Women Decide!" to mark International Safe Abortion Day, many people express their concern about the situation not only in the United States but also in Europe. “When we demonstrate tonight, we think about American women, we think about the Poles, we think about the Hungarians," explains lawyer Sandra Vizzavona, author of "Interruption".

Continued: https://www.france24.com/en/video/20231003-we-think-about-american-polish-hungarian-women-french-protest-to-defend-abortion-rights

03.10.2023

Videos/Images

Danielle Gaudry

International Safe Abortion Day

Women in Poland protest alleged police hostility against patient who took abortion pill

July 25, 2023
The Associated Press

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Hundreds of women in Poland protested outside police stations Tuesday to oppose the allegedly ruthless way officers treated a woman who had taken an abortion pill.

The protests in Krakow, Warsaw and some other cities were intended to show solidarity with the woman and to condemn police shaming practices.

Continued: https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/health/women-in-poland-protest-alleged-police-hostility-against-patient-who-took-abortion-pill/

25.07.2023

UK – Thousands march to decriminalise abortion after woman jailed for ending pregnancy after legal limit

Campaigners stress ‘abortion is healthcare, not a crime - we should not be policing people’s bodies’

Tara Cobham
June 17, 2023

Thousands of protesters calling for the decriminalisation of abortion have marched in central London following outrage at the conviction of a woman for ending her pregnancy beyond the legal cut-off of 24 weeks.

Campaigners stressed that “abortion is healthcare, not a crime”, after Carla Foster, 44, was this week sentenced to 28 months in jail, having obtained drugs to end her pregnancy at 32 to 34 weeks during lockdown.

Continued: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/abortion-rights-march-london-woman-jailed-b2359503.html

17.06.2023

News

1967 Abortion Act

Abortion Rights Campaign

British Pregnancy Advisory Service

Carla Foster

jailing women for abortion

Kerry Abel

pro-choice protests

Women’s Equality party

Thousands protest in Poland against strict abortion law after pregnant woman died of sepsis

By VANESSA GERA, Associated Press

June 14, 2023

WARSAW, Poland -- Thousands of people demonstrated across Poland on Wednesday against the country's restrictive abortion law after a woman who was five months pregnant died of sepsis, the latest such death since a tightening of the law.

The protesters vented their fury against the governing Law and Justice party, or PiS, and doctors who refuse to perform abortions even when a woman's life is at risk. There have been reported cases of hospitals that refused to terminate pregnancies because of the presence of a fetal heartbeat even when the women were in grave danger.

Continued: https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/abortion-rights-protests-planned-poland-after-death-pregnant-100063909

‘More American than football’: Retired history professor recounts abortion fight

The Canadian Press
Published Dec. 3, 2022

Betsy Jameson found a yellow piece of paper in 2017 when she cleaned out her office after retiring from the history department at the University of Calgary.

The paper, faded and slightly stained, had the names and phone numbers of three doctors in New York and New Jersey. It was from the summer of 1967 when she was a 20-year-old student training to be a hall adviser at a college residence in Ohio. The names were doctors who would perform abortions at a time when it was illegal in most states.

Continued: https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/more-american-than-football-retired-history-professor-recounts-abortion-fight-1.6179920

03.12.2022

Will Polish police repeat crackdown on anti-abortion protests two years on?

OPINION: The EU should insist that Poland uphold the right to sexual and reproductive health care|

Letta Tayler
21 October 2022

It’s two years since hundreds of thousands of people – mostly women – joined protests in Poland against a near-total ban on legal abortion. Police used violence to disperse rallies and detained thousands of protesters.

On Monday, protesters in Warsaw, at the Constitutional Tribunal, plan to mark the second anniversary of the tribunal’s ruling with another rally, outside the Constitutional Tribunal, which approved the near-total ban. They say they will repeat their demands on the government to decriminalise terminations and to ensure access to safe and legal abortion for all.

Continued: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/5050/poland-abortion-law-ban-protests-second-anniversary-police/

Australia – Police clash with abortion protesters, as opposing rallies take to the streets of Melbourne

By Georgia Lenton-Williams
Oct 7, 2022

Protesters have clashed with police in Melbourne's city as people rallied in the streets to promote opposing messages about abortion rights.

Pro-choice protesters marched a course through the CBD that was planned to intersect with an anti-abortion march taking place at the same time.

Continued: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-10-08/opposing-groups-protest-about-abortion-rights-in-melbourne-city/101515568

07.10.2022

Mexico – Sonoran activists march to demand access to abortion care

By Kendal Blust
Thursday, September 29, 2022

On Sept. 28, hundreds of protesters took to the streets in Hermosillo, Sonora, to recognize International Safe Abortion Day, when, for decades, people across Latin America have protested to demand abortion rights.

Women chant “we must abort this patriarchal system” as they march through the streets of Hermosillo Wednesday night. Such protests have become an annual tradition in Sonora and across Mexico, part of a growing movement to make abortion care legal across the country.

Continued: https://fronterasdesk.org/content/1813713/sonoran-activists-march-demand-access-abortion-care

29.09.2022