Polish Women Lead Strike Over Abortion Ruling Amid Threats of Crackdown

The leader of Poland’s ruling party, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, accused demonstrators of seeking the destruction of the nation and appealed to supporters to “defend Poland.”

By Marc Santora, Monika Pronczuk and Anatol Magdziarz
New York Times
Oct. 28, 2020

Tens of thousands of women took to the streets in dozens of Polish cities and towns for a nationwide strike on Wednesday to protest a top court’s decision to ban nearly all abortions, even as the nation’s leading politician urged his conservative supporters to “defend Poland.”

The call by Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the deputy prime minister and leader of the ruling Law and Justice party, to fight back against the protesters and his description of the opposition as “criminals” seeking to “destroy the Polish nation,” threatened to escalate an already tense moment in the deeply divided nation.

Continued: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/28/world/europe/poland-women-abortion-strike.html

Poland abortion ruling: Protests spread across the country

Oct 23, 2020

Thousands of women are protesting against Poland's new abortion laws in cities across the country.

A court ruling on Thursday banned almost all abortions - with exceptions only for cases of rape, incest, or where the mother's health is at risk.

Continued: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-54669257

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

Poland’s top court rules out abortions due to fetal defects

Monika Scislowska, The Associated Press
Published Thursday, October 22, 2020

WARSAW, POLAND -- Poland's top court ruled Thursday that a law allowing abortion of fetuses with congenital defects is unconstitutional, shutting a major loophole in the predominantly Catholic country's abortion laws that are among the strictest in Europe.

Two judges in the 13-member constitutional Court did not back the majority ruling. Activists deplored the decision, and the Council of Europe's human rights commissioner wrote on Twitter that it was a "sad day for women's rights."

Continued: https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/poland-s-top-court-rules-out-abortions-due-to-fetal-defects-1.5156017

Poland rules abortion due to foetal defects unconstitutional

Constitutional court’s ruling could pave way for governing PiS party to move ahead with legislative ban

The Guardian
Thu 22 Oct 2020

Poland’s constitutional tribunal has ruled that abortion due to foetal defects is unconstitutional, rejecting the most common of the few legal grounds for pregnancy termination in the predominantly Catholic country.

The
chief justice, Julia Przyłębska, said in a ruling that existing legislation –
one of Europe’s most restrictive – that allows for the abortion of malformed
foetuses was “incompatible” with the constitution.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/22/poland-rules-abortion-due-to-foetal-defects-unconstitutional