Icon: enlarge
People demonstrate against the tightening of the abortion law in front of the seat of the Constitutional Court in Warsaw on Wednesday evening
Photo: RADEK PIETRUSZKA / EPA-EFE / Shutterstock
In Poland, the women's movement has announced new protests over the implementation of the almost complete ban on abortion.
The right-wing conservative government implemented a controversial ruling by the Supreme Court in October that overturned the previous license to abort seriously malformed fetuses.
A demonstration in front of the courthouse in Warsaw and other actions in the larger Polish cities are planned for Wednesday evening, the organization of the All-Polish Women's Strike announced.
In October the constitutional court of the EU country ruled that women are not allowed to have an abortion even if the unborn child has severe malformations.
Afterwards there were protests for weeks.
The decision means a tightening of Polish abortion law, which is one of the strictest in Europe anyway.
Until now, it has been legal in Poland to have an abortion if the pregnancy endangers the life or health of the mother, is the result of rape or if the unborn child has severe malformations.
According to human rights organizations, a ban on abortion in the latter case amounts to a complete ban on abortion.
In Poland there are fewer than 2000 legally performed abortions each year.
However, women's rights organizations estimate that around 200,000 Polish women have illegal abortions or go abroad for it every year.
Suffragettes fear that this number will increase if the Supreme Court ruling is implemented.
Contrary to custom, the decision of the constitutional court had not yet been published in the official gazette.
The new regulation will be published in the law gazette on Wednesday, the PiS government announced on Twitter - the decision would then be officially valid.
Icon: The mirror
kim / dpa / AFP
