Nov 26, 2025
Notes from Poland
One of the leaders of the mass protests against the introduction of a near-total abortion ban in Poland has been denied security clearance by the security services.
As a result, she will not be able to continue working in a government commission investigating surveillance of civil society groups, including her own movement, by the security services under the former Law and Justice (PiS) administration.
22.10.2025
October 22 marks five years since the autumn of 2020, when hundreds of thousands of people poured onto the streets of more than 600 cities and towns across Poland in the largest demonstrations since the Solidarity movement helped bring down communism in 1989.
Across Poland red flares lit up the night as crowds carrying the lightning-bolt symbol of the Women’s Strike filled the streets. Chants against the Catholic Church and the then-ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party echoed across the country - defining images of outrage over a near-total abortion ban.
... and what it has to do with the Kremlin.
Podcast: 27:50 minutes
WORDS: LAICIE HEELEY, PICTURES: COLIN LLOYD
DATE: APRIL 29, 2024
When does something as deeply personal as abortion become a matter of foreign policy? Maybe when it becomes a stand-in for national values and belief systems. Or maybe when it becomes a clever wedge to divide societies.
Today, Polish abortion activists are on the cusp of a huge change. After 30 years of some of the strictest abortion laws in the country, it looks like some liberalization could be on the way.
Continued: https://inkstickmedia.com/inside-polands-abortion-crossroads/
by Michelle Goldberg
Photographs by Rafal Milach
Feb. 6, 2024
Adam Bodnar, Poland’s new justice minister, recently explained to me the immense challenge of rebuilding liberal democracy in his country after an eight-year slide toward authoritarianism. Imagine, he said, that Donald Trump had won the last election and been in power for two terms instead of one. “What would be the damage?” he asked.
After only four years of Trump, President Biden inherited a furiously divided nation, its courts seeded with right-wing apparatchiks and the nature of reality itself in deep dispute. But as even MAGA die-hards will acknowledge, Trump often failed to bend the state to his will, which is why his allies have a plan to do things differently next time, purging civil servants and replacing them with loyalists. Poland is a country that has just gone through something like what Trumpists hope to impose on us in a second term. Its institutions have been hollowed out. Many experienced technocrats and neutral judges have been replaced by lackeys and ideologues.
Continue: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/06/opinion/abortion-ban-poland-democracy.html
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
Human Rights Watch
March 31, 2021
(Berlin) – Bomb and death threats targeting at least seven groups in Poland for supporting women’s rights and the right to abortion are disturbing reminders of escalating risks to women’s human rights defenders in the country, Human Rights Watch, CIVICUS, and International Planned Parenthood Federation-European Network (IPPF-EN) said today.
The authorities should urgently investigate, protect the women targeted and hold those responsible for the threats accountable. Polish officials should also counter abusive misinformation campaigns targeting activists.
Continued: https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/03/31/poland-escalating-threats-women-activists
Mar 8, 2021
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Women’s rights activists in Poland marked International Women’s Day on Monday caught between reasons to celebrate and a heavy sense that they are facing a long battle ahead.
This year’s Women’s Day, which was marked with protests, comes after a near total ban on abortion took effect in January in the mostly Roman Catholic country, a step that had long been been sought by the conservative ruling party, Law and Justice.
Continued: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/polish-women-mark-womens-day-protesting-abortion-ban
By Mark Armstrong with AP
Updated: 30/01/2021
Protesters took the streets of cities across Poland on Friday for the third consecutive night of rallies against the introduction of strict abortion laws.
The legislation that came into force on Wednesday makes it almost impossible to terminate a pregnancy legally except in cases of incest, rape, or when the pregnancy threatens the life of the mother.
Continued: https://www.euronews.com/2021/01/30/protests-against-new-abortion-law-continue-across-poland
Vanessa Gera / The Associated Press
JANUARY 29, 2021
WARSAW, Poland — Poles took to the streets of Warsaw, Gdansk and other cities for a third night of protests Friday, after a near-total abortion ban took effect that gives Poland one of the most restrictive laws in Europe.
There were some small scuffles with police, who used tear gas on protesters.
Continued: https://www.timescolonist.com/poles-hold-more-protests-over-abortion-activist-released-1.24274751
Court ruling bans all abortions except in cases of rape and incest, or when the mother’s life or health are considered to be at risk.
29 Jan 2021
Armed with red paint and defying coronavirus restrictions, hundreds of Poles rallied in Warsaw on Thursday against a controversial court verdict imposing a near-total ban on abortion.
Protesters also took to the streets elsewhere in the staunchly Catholic EU member state in a second night of outrage after the Constitutional Court ruling came into effect on Wednesday.
Continued: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/1/29/poland-abortion
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