Poland’s abortion rights protesters prepare for revolution

“We’re entering a second stage of the revolution, and everyone’s invited” #12DaysofResistance

Lidia Kurasinska
2 January 2021

“We’re entering a second stage of the revolution, and everyone’s invited,” said Klementyna Suchanow during an online press conference on 22 December, after two months of mass protests organised by the Polish Women’s Strike.

The demonstrations began in response to a ruling that would ban abortion in cases of severe foetal anomaly in October, but they soon took on a broader anti-government sentiment.

Continued: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/5050/polands-abortion-rights-protesters-prepare-for-revolution/

02.01.2021

Polish women's strike

severe foetal anomaly

POLAND – Reports of heavy-handed and illegal treatment of protestors by police

International Campaign for Safe Abortion
NOVEMBER 25, 2020

A survey carried out on 6-12 November among a representative group of 1,010 adult Poles using a computer-assisted face-to-face interview method, found that 29% of those aged 18-24 had participated in the street protests of the past month. The greatest support for the protests was expressed by people from cities with 20,000-100,000 residents (78% in total, of which 16% said they had taken part in the protests), followed by people from cities with over 500,000 inhabitants (71%, of which 18% participated in the protests). More women than men participated in the protests but the level support was equal. Overall, 70% of the respondents supported the street protests; 13% of respondents had participated in the protests (4% many times and 9% once). Only 25% did not participate in or support the demonstrations and 5% did not know.

Continued: https://www.safeabortionwomensright.org/news/poland-reports-of-heavy-handed-and-illegal-treatment-of-protestors-by-police/

25.11.2020

Amnesty International

Draginja Nadazdin

Marta Lempart

Poland Constitutional Tribunal

police brutality against protesters

pro-choice protests

public support for abortion

Women’s Strike

‘This is war’: Inside Poland’s abortion protests

Activists in Poland are declaring war after a court decided to restrict abortion in cases of fetal abnormalities.

16 Nov 2020
22-minute podcast

Poland has some of the most restrictive abortion laws in Europe. So, when a Polish court tried to restrict abortion even further, it led to mass protests – the largest the country has seen since the fall of communism. Members of Poland’s emboldened feminist movement walk us through the protests and tell us what to expect next.

In this episode: Scholar and writer Agnieszka Graff; Gosia Wochowska and Wiktoria Sakowicz of Gals4Gals Lodz; student and activist Kajetan Chlipalski.

Continued: https://www.aljazeera.com/podcasts/2020/11/16/poland-abortion-protests/

Poland – Women’s Strike launches legal abortion initiative

NOVEMBER 12, 2020

The Women's Strike leader on Thursday announced the launching of a "Legal Abortion - No Compromises" initiative aimed at ensuring access to abortion in Poland. The project will run its own website.

"Here in Poland we're not talking about changing anti-abortion laws. We're saying that we don't want anti-abortion laws. We want access to a service, because abortion is a medical service," Women's Strike leader Marta Lempart said.

Continued: https://www.thefirstnews.com/article/womens-strike-launches-legal-abortion-initiative-17535

12.11.2020

Featured

News

Legal Abortion - No Compromises

Marta Lempart

Poland Constitutional Tribunal

Women Strike Back

Turning Polish Society Upside Down

Gabriela Rogowska
9 November 2020

The Polish Constitutional Court’s judgment on legal abortion has brought both women and young people onto the streets. Unleashing dormant energy, the protests have also initiated a discussion about the position of women and youth in Polish society.

As with Mikhail Bulgakov, the inevitable has already happened, Anushka has already spilt the oil, according to one of the already famous protest slogans. Only not everyone has realised it yet.

Continued:
https://visegradinsight.eu/women-strike-back-poland-abortion/

09.11.2020

Poland Constitutional Tribunal

Polish women's strike

‘A backlash against a patriarchal culture’: How Polish protests go beyond abortion rights

Mass demonstrations have exposed underlying anger at political and religious interference in people’s everyday lives

by Jon Henley, Europe correspondent, and Kasia Strek in Warsaw
Fri 6 Nov 2020

For 14 nights they have marched, enraged by a near-total ban on abortion that has stirred a generation to stage the largest mass demonstrations that Poland has seen since Solidarność toppled the communist regime in the 1980s.

Until soaring coronavirus numbers and a looming national lockdown made it almost impossible, up to a million people nightly defied a government ban on protests, taking to the streets from Warsaw to Łódź, Poznań to Wrocław, Gdańsk to Kraków.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/nov/06/a-backlash-against-a-patriarchal-culture-how-polish-protests-go-beyond-abortion-rights

Double healthcare spending and create a secular state: abortion protest leaders unveil demands

NOV 3, 2020

The main organisers of ongoing demonstrations against an anti-abortion ruling by the Constitutional Tribunal have unveiled a set of political demands.

All-Poland Women’s Strike (Ogólnopolski Strajk Kobiet, OSK), a social movement, has been the primary force behind what are believed to be the largest protests in Poland since the fall of communism in 1989. Its red lightning bolt logo has become the demonstrators main symbol.

Continued: https://notesfrompoland.com/2020/11/03/double-healthcare-spending-and-create-a-secular-state-abortion-protest-leaders-unveil-demands/

Polish abortion protest leader seeks inspiration from Belarus

Nov 2, 2020
By Joanna Plucinska and Alicja Ptak

WARSAW (Reuters) - As Poland's abortion protests continue into a second week, their top organiser, Marta Lempart, says she is grateful for a clear role model to the East - Belarus's opposition movement.

Tens of thousands have gathered across Poland, with the largest protests on Friday in Warsaw, since the Constitutional Tribunal further limited the country's already restrictive abortion laws, making terminations due to foetal abnormalities illegal.

Continued: https://www.capebretonpost.com/news/world/polish-abortion-protest-leader-seeks-inspiration-from-belarus-515884/

Thousands in Warsaw Join Biggest Protest so far Against Abortion Ruling

By Reuters
October 30, 2020

WARSAW, POLAND - Tens of thousands of Poles joined a march Friday in Warsaw, the biggest in nine days of protests against a ruling by the country's top court last week that amounted to a near-total ban on abortion in the predominantly Catholic nation.

Defying strict rules that restrict gatherings to five people during the coronavirus pandemic, demonstrators walked through central Warsaw streets carrying black umbrellas, a symbol of abortion rights protests in Poland, and banners that read "I think, I feel, I decide" or "God is a woman."

Continued: https://www.voanews.com/europe/thousands-warsaw-join-biggest-protest-so-far-against-abortion-ruling

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