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Protests against the tightening of abortion law in Warsaw: "Monstrous ideological confrontation"
Photo: AGENCJA GAZETA / via REUTERS
The front ran on Thursday evening in Warsaw's Szucha-Allee in front of the constitutional court building: On one side of the barricades, enthusiastic anti-abortionists threw up activist Kaja Godek: "Poland is an example for Europe and for the whole world," said breathlessly the mother of two children, one of whom has Down syndrome.
Not far from there, angry women demonstrated, many in black: "Poland is hell for women."
Because the state is forcing them to give birth to seriously ill children.
The question of abortions is one of many that ideologically divides Polish society into Catholic traditionalists and liberals.
Some publicists even speak of a Polish-Polish civil war.
And that is likely to get worse, because on Thursday the constitutional tribunal declared an aspect of the abortion law to be unconstitutional.
"A black day"
After that, abortions are no longer allowed, even if the fetus is severely and incurably damaged.
1100 abortions officially took place in the Catholic country last year, 1074 of them because the fetus was severely damaged.
According to the dictum of the constitutional court, abortions are now only possible after rape, or if the mother's life is endangered by the pregnancy.
The Polish public does not see the tightening of abortion law primarily as a legal decision by the Constitutional Court, but as a political step by the national-conservative PiS government.
It will bring women in need, will drive them underground or abroad to abort.
The tightening of the abortion law will also drive society apart culturally.
"A black day," said a feminist.
In the evening, a thousand demonstrators moved from the city center to the Zoliborz district in front of the house of PiS boss and Deputy Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski.
Poland's strong man had just gone into corona quarantine there.
There were street battles, and women's organizations have announced demonstrations for Friday evening as well.
Kaczynski's PiS is already in power in its second term.
It has brought the constitutional tribunal under control and also provides the president.
Under Kaczynski's leadership, PiS had long resisted the call of the right wing for a tightening of the abortion clause, and referred corresponding bills to committees where they should rot.
Because a restrictive abortion law is actually unpopular even in Poland: In surveys, around half of the respondents said they should leave the previously applicable regulations untouched.
28 percent would like liberalization, only 15 would like it to be tightened.
But this minority has a strong ally: the Catholic Church.
She openly supported PiS in all elections.
The fact that the constitutional tribunal decided to tighten it on the initiative of 114 PiS MPs has probably to do with the fact that Kaczynski wants to keep the church on his side.
"PiS had to pay its debts", writes the publicist Dominika Sitnicka.
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in Szczecin women protest against the de facto ban on abortion: "A black day"
Photo: AGENCJA GAZETA / REUTERS
For abortion to the neighbors
The previous abortion law has been in effect since 1997.
It allowed abortions in the event of rape, danger to the mother and serious harm to the fetus.
It was a compromise that left many people dissatisfied, but was acceptable for a majority.
"Up until now, a woman had the choice of whether to carry a seriously damaged fetus to term," says doctor Kaja Filaczynska, who initiated a petition from colleagues to the constitutional tribunal.
But now women are forced to get through pregnancy.
This goes hand in hand with considerable medical risks and could reduce the chance of motherhood in the future.
The abortion law has already been rather strict in European comparison.
But there are women's associations and organizations that help.
"There is a certain infrastructure," says Filaczynska.
Experts estimate that 80,000 to 150,000 Polish women have abortions each year.
There is an unreported number of illegal abortions and many women seek help from their neighbors: "They travel in all directions, to Ukraine, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Germany. This is of course particularly difficult for poor women and those from small towns," says Filaczynska.
The wrong time for a "monstrous ideological confrontation"
Opponents of the tightening accuse PiS of having helped a radical position to break through in an authoritarian manner, without public debate and without a parliamentary resolution.
It is the wrong time to conjure up a "monstrous ideological confrontation", writes the conservative journalist Boguslaw Chrabota.
13,000 new corona cases were registered on Thursday.
And Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki has to appeal to "national solidarity" because of new restrictions in public life.
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