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 abortion: Top court ban almost all terminations

October 22, 2020

Poland's top court has ruled that abortions in cases of foetal defects are unconstitutional.

Poland's abortion laws were already among the strictest in Europe but the Constitutional Tribunal's ruling will mean an almost total ban.

Once the decision comes into effect, terminations will only be allowed in cases of rape or incest, or if the mother's health is at risk.

Continued: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-54642108

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

Poland Court Ruling Effectively Bans Legal Abortions

The decision, which cannot be appealed, halts pregnancy terminations for fetal abnormalities, virtually the only type currently performed in the country.

By Monika Pronczuk
Oct. 22, 2020

A constitutional tribunal in Poland ruled on Thursday that abortions for fetal abnormalities violate the country’s Constitution, effectively imposing a near-total ban in a nation that already had some of the strictest abortion laws in Europe.

The debate over a woman’s right to terminate a pregnancy, a divisive issue in a staunchly Roman Catholic country, mirrors the bitter polarization of a society caught between traditional religious values and more liberal ones.

Continued: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/22/world/europe/poland-tribunal-abortions.html

’Let down’: calls for Gibraltar’s Covid-delayed abortion vote to take place

Pro-choice activists demand decriminalisation referendum happen despite conservative opposition

Darcy Jimenez
Tue 29 Sep 2020

Earlier this year, pro-choice activists in Gibraltar were hopeful that their territory’s abortion laws – the harshest in Europe – could soon be overturned.

Terminations are banned in the tiny British territory, even in the cases of rape, incest, or foetal abnormality where the foetus will not survive. Abortions are punishable by life imprisonment, except when the woman’s life is in danger.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/sep/29/the-gibraltarians-demanding-covid-delayed-abortion-vote-takes-place

Slovakia: Draconian restrictions on abortion would endanger the lives of women and girls

16 September 2020
Amnesty International

Lawmakers in Slovakia must reject a draconian law that would impose new barriers to abortion and endanger the health and wellbeing of women and girls, said Amnesty International, ahead of the start of a parliamentary plenary session that will debate on a new abortion bill.

If passed, the law would introduce additional barriers to women and girls seeking abortion, doubling unnecessary waiting periods, imposing new medical authorization requirements for abortion on health grounds and forcing them to state their reasons for seeking care.

Continued: https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2020/09/slovakia-draconian-restrictions-on-abortion-would-endanger-the-lives-of-women-and-girls/

16.09.2020

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‘No options’ for El Salvador’s pregnant girls raped in lockdown

Anastasia Moloney
AUGUST 31, 2020

BOGOTA (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - More than 100 girls in El Salvador, some as young as 10, got pregnant after being raped at home during the coronavirus lockdown, but strict laws mean they have no safe options to end unwanted pregnancies, campaigners said on Monday.

Under El Salvador’s total ban on abortion, even in cases of rape, incest, a deformed fetus or when a mother’s life is in danger, the girls must carry the pregnancies to term or seek risky backstreet abortions, say reproductive rights advocates.

Continued: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-el-salvador-aborti/no-options-for-el-salvadors-pregnant-girls-raped-in-lockdown-idUSKBN25R2YY

Neo-Nazis & Religious Conservatives Unite in Slovakia’s Fresh Abortion Battle

Campaigners fear that stark legislative proposals are helping to normalise a repressive discourse around reproductive rights in which concessions may be inevitable

Sian Norris
31 July 2020

Defying the Coronavirus pandemic, women gathered on the streets of Bratislava, Liptovský Mikuláš, Banská Bystrica, and Košice in Slovakia, on 7 July, protesting the latest attack on their reproductive rights.

The women wore protective face masks and carried placards demanding that the Government not introduce restrictions to abortion law that threaten their freedom.

Continued: https://bylinetimes.com/2020/07/31/neo-nazis-religious-conservatives-unite-in-slovakias-fresh-abortion-battle/

El Salvador – These women say they had miscarriages. Now they’re in jail for abortion.

These women say they had miscarriages. Now they're in jail for abortion.

By Kate Smith, Gilad Thaler
May 28, 2020 / CBS News

Watch the CBS News Digital documentary "Jailed for Abortion in El Salvador" in the video player above. It premieres on CBSN tonight at 10:30 p.m. ET.

Seven months pregnant, Manuela, a mother of two, said she miscarried at her modest home in rural El Salvador. But the police, and a judge, didn't believe her. They charged and convicted her for aggravated homicide, sentencing her to 30 years in prison.

But Manuela only served two of those years. In 2010, she died alone in a hospital of Hodgkin's lymphoma, a disease her lawyers say caused her to miscarry.

Continued: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/miscarriages-abortion-jail-el-salvador/