Protesters gather after Polish court supports almost total ban on abortion

Protesters gathered across Poland on Thursdayafter the Constitutional Tribunal ruled thatabortion due to fetal defects was unconstitutional, banning themost common of the few legal grounds for ending a pregnancy inthe largely Catholic country.

Curbing access to procedure a long-standing ambition of country's ruling party

Thomson Reuters Posted: Oct 22, 2020 9:56 PM EDT | Last Updated: October 23, 2020

Protesters stand in front of the Constitutional Court building in Warsaw on Thursday, demonstrating against a ruling that bans the most common of the few legal grounds for ending a pregnancy in Poland, a largely Catholic country. (Jedrzej Nowicki/Agencja Gazeta via Reuters)

Protestersgathered across Poland on Thursdayafter the Constitutional Tribunal ruled thatabortion due to fetal defects was unconstitutional, banning themost common of the few legal grounds for ending a pregnancy in the largely Catholic country.

After the ruling goes into effect, abortion will only bepermissible in Poland in cases of rape, incest or when a mother's health and life are in danger, which make up only abouttwo per cent oflegal terminations conducted in recent years.

"[A provision that] legalizes eugenic practices in thefield of the right to life of an unborn child and makes theright to life of an unborn child dependent on his or her health ... is inconsistent ... with the constitution," said JuliaPrzylebska, presidentof the Constitutional Tribunal.

Hundreds marched toward the house of governing party leaderJaroslaw Kaczynski on Thursday night after the ruling, somecarrying candles and signs that read "torture." Most wore facemasks to comply with coronavirus pandemic restrictions.

Police in riot gear had cordoned off the house, and privatebroadcaster TVN showed police using tear gas as protesters threwstones and tried to push through the police line.

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Small protests also took place in the cities of Krakow, Lodzand Szczecin.

"It's sick that such controversial things are being decidedat a time when the entire society lives in fear [of the pandemic]and is afraid to go into the streets," said 41-year-old,MariannaDobkowska.

A 'devastatingsentence' for women

Conservative values have played a growing role in publiclife in Poland since the nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party came into power five years ago on a promise to defend what it sees as the nation's traditional, Catholic character.

Curbing access to abortion has been a long-standing ambitionof the party, but it has stepped back from previous legislativeproposals amid widespread public backlash.

Police officers in Warsaw are shown after protests broke out on Thursday against a ruling by Poland's Constitutional Tribunal that imposes further restrictions on abortions in the country. ( Jedrzej Nowicki/Agencja Gazeta via Reuters)

A group of right-wing lawmakers asked the tribunal inDecember 2019 to rule on the legality of abortion when there is serious, irreversible damage to the fetus.

"Today Poland is an example for Europe, it's an example forthe world," said Kaja Godek, a member of the Stop Abortionpublic initiative.

Women's rights and opposition groups reacted with dismay.

"The worst-case scenario that could have come true has cometrue. It is a devastating sentence that will destroy the livesof many women and many families," said lawyer Kamila Ferenc, whoworks with an NGO helping women denied abortion.

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"It will especially force the poor to give birth to childrenagainst their will. Either they have no chance of surviving,orthey have no chance of an independent existence, or they willdie shortly after giving birth."

Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights DunjaMijatovic called it a "sad day for women's rights."

"Removing the basis for almost all legal abortions in Polandamounts to a ban and violates human rights. Today's ruling ofthe Constitutional Court means underground/abroad abortions forthose who can afford and even greater ordeal for all others."

Protesters gathered across Poland after the Constitutional Tribunal ruled on Thursday that abortion due to fetal defects was unconstitutional. (Kacper Pempel/Reuters)

Critics allege courts are politicized

Opponents say the Constitutional Tribunal may have acted onthe ruling party's behalf. While the tribunal is nominally independent, most of its judges have been nominated by the Law and Justice party, someto replace candidates picked by the opposition but whoseappointment was refused by President Andrzej Duda, a party ally.

"To throw in the subject of abortion and produce a ruling bya pseudo-tribunal in the middle of a raging pandemic is morethan cynicism. It is political wickedness," said Donald Tusk, head of the main centre-right group in the European Parliamentand a former prime minister of Poland.

PiS denies trying to influence the court or taking advantageof the pandemic to push through the changes. Its justice reforms, which included the tribunal, have attracted wide internationalaccusations of undermining democratic norms.

Analysis
Poland's proposed ban on abortion part of broader push to turn back history

Abortion rights activists say access to the procedure wasoften declined in recent years in Poland, even in cases when itwould be legal.

Many doctors in Poland, which already had some of thestrictest abortion rules in Europe, exercise their legal right to refuse to terminate pregnancies on religious grounds. Somesay they are pressured into doing so by their superiors.

"We are gladwith what the Constitutional Tribunal ruled because one cannotkill a child for being sick," Maria Kurowska, a lawmaker from theUnited Poland party, said.

"This is not a fetus, it is achild."

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Protesters gather after Polish court supports almost total ban on abortion

Curbing access to procedure a long-standing ambition of country's ruling party

A 'devastatingsentence' for women

Critics allege courts are politicized

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