Oct 3, 2016, BBC.com
Thousands of women in Poland have gone on strike in protest against proposals for a total ban on abortions.
They marched through the streets wearing black as a sign of mourning for their reproductive rights.
Women who oppose the ban are staying away from work and school and refusing to do domestic chores, in a protest inspired by a women's strike in Iceland in 1975.
Anti-abortion protests are being held around the country too.
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Source: BBC.com
By Rick Noack October 3, Washington Post
Polish women protest in Warsaw against government plans for a complete ban of abortion. (Janek Skarzynski/AFP via Getty Images)
LONDON — Women all over Poland went on strike Monday to protest the government's plans for a ban on abortions. It was unclear how many women participated nationally, but organizers estimated that up to 6 million women joined in the protest, according to news reports.
Some protesters wore black clothes as they marched through the streets on "Black Monday." There were counter-demonstrations, as well, with antiabortion protesters marching in white clothes to distinguish themselves from their ideological opponents.
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Source: Washington Post
Published on Monday, September 26, 2016
by Common Dreams
Poland's right-wing parliament moved forward with legislation that would sentence women and doctors to years in prison for terminating a pregnancy
by Nika Knight, staff writer
Poland's ruling right-wing party on Friday pushed forward with a nearly complete ban on abortion, and women around the country and in cities across Europe rose up this weekend to condemn the legislation.
The new anti-abortion bill "proposes to permit abortion only if the pregnancy threatens the mother's life," according to the Telegraph, forcing victims of rape or incest to carry those pregnancies to term. "Women who have terminations could be jailed for between three months and five years, while practitioners of illegal abortions could also face five-year sentences, up from two years at present," the newspaper adds.
And because doctors are threatened with prison sentences for performing abortions, they will be reluctant to perform abortions even when the mother's life is indeed threatened, as a doctor argued before parliament earlier this year: "If I have a 32-week pregnant patient with pre-eclampsia, I have to wait for her and her child to start dying before I can take action," explained Professor Romuald Dębski, who is quoted by Amnesty International.
"If there is an ectopic pregnancy and bleeding, I can perform a termination. But if there is no bleeding—no immediate risk to life—I have to wait until she starts dying," Dębski said.
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Source: Common Dreams
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