The protesters against the abortion reform in Poland, which practically prohibits the voluntary interruption of pregnancy, have again taken to the streets of the country this Wednesday for the official publication of the new regulations, which is expected imminently.
Poland's Constitutional Court ruled in October that abortion for serious fetal malformations, such as illness or disability, is contrary to the Constitution, but the official publication of the pronouncement has been delayed, amid a wave of outrage and protests in several Polish cities .
Before this change, abortion regulations in Poland were already very restrictive.
With the elimination of fetal malformations as a cause for abortion, the voluntary interruption of pregnancy in the country is almost eliminated: this assumption represented around 97% of the 1,110 abortions performed legally in the country in 2019, according to official data.
From now on, abortion will only be allowed in Poland if the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest and when the life of the mother is in danger.
Poland declares abortion due to fetal malformation unconstitutional
The high court has published this Wednesday the legal bases of the sentence, for which the Government has announced that it will publish it "immediately" in the
Law Review
(equivalent to the BOE), as reported by the local newspaper
Gazeta Wyborcza
, which cites to the government press office.
Thus, the Women's Strike movement, which is leading the protests, has called the main demonstration in front of the headquarters of the Polish Constitutional Court, in the capital, Warsaw.
Several thousand people have gathered, including Marta Lempart, the leader of Huelga de Mujeres, and political parties and social groups that have already participated in similar protests in the past.
In statements to the media, Lempart has charged against the ruling ultraconservative party Law and Justice (PiS), promoter of the demand to restrict abortion, the president of the Constitutional Court, Julia Przylebska, and the doctors who will not perform abortions based on the ruling of the court.
“We will find each of you.
This is a warning to doctors and hospital directors, "he said, underlining that the movement" will help "physicians who" act honestly. "
“The prohibition of abortion does not mean that there is no abortion.
It makes abortions only allowed for the rich ”, he criticized.
"Another border has been crossed, although it seems that we cannot go any further," lamented Katarzina, a woman who attended the demonstration.
Other protesters have carried banners that read "You shouldn't have pissed us off."
Before the publication of the document by the court, the presence of the police in the streets surrounding its headquarters has already been appreciated.
From police vehicles, the agents have recalled that the demonstration is "illegal" in the context of the pandemic and have asked attendees to leave the place.
In addition, there are protests called in other cities, such as Krakow, Lodz, Wroclaw, Poznan, Katowice, Gdansk and Bialystok.
According to Lempart, there have been mobilizations in up to 40 Polish cities.
Legislative approval
A group of 119 deputies, led by the Law and Justice party (PiS), filed a lawsuit before the Constitutional Court in 2019, understanding that current abortion legislation de facto legalizes eugenics.
The wording of the law so far in force allows the termination of a pregnancy in the event that there is a very high probability, rather than occurrence, of a disability or serious illness of the fetus.
The current status of abortion legislation, known as the “abortion pledge,” was established in 1993. Since then, neither advocates of liberalizing the law nor advocates of further restricting access have been successful in their efforts.
With the modification, Poland is closer to the situation of San Marino, Andorra and Malta, the latter the only country in the EU that prohibits abortion in all cases.
It will also become the first community club state to backtrack on legal access to abortion in recent history.
In the rest of the Union, with the exception of Finland (where there is a wide catalog of cases that allow the termination of pregnancy), the practice is decriminalized.