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Tens of thousands of Poles protested the tightening of abortion laws with a march through central Warsaw. President Duda wants to ease the situation with a new bill.
Tens of thousands of people in Poland protested against the tightening of abortion laws. The organization “Strike of Polish women” had summoned it. The march through Warsaw is said to be a highlight of the demonstrations that have rocked Poland for days.
Last week, the Constitutional Court ruled that women are not allowed to abort even if their child is seriously deformed. In fact, this amounts to a ban on abortion.
In previous demonstrations, there was clear discontent with the ruling nationalist-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party. Critics of the ruling blame PiS and the Catholic Church, which is powerful in Poland, for the decision.
“My belly is not a chapel”
“Wet macica never kaplica” is a motto of the protesters: “My belly is not a chapel.” The call to separate the state and the church more clearly, which was previously the concern of a small political left minority, is gaining acceptance far beyond women’s groups.
Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki called for an end to the mass protests on Thursday: They threatened to further stoke the corona pandemic and thus endanger the elderly, he said.
President Duda proposes changes to the law
Meanwhile, President Andrzej Duda wants to defuse the dispute with a new bill. This foresees the possibility of an abortion if, according to the medical diagnosis, the child is likely to be stillborn or die shortly after birth due to its malformations, the presidential administration said. “I hope for a political consensus on this issue,” Duda said.
Polish abortion law is already one of the strictest in Europe. Since 1993, abortion has only been legal in Poland if the pregnancy endangers the life or health of the mother, is the result of rape or if the fetus is seriously deformed. The latter is the most common reason for abortion, according to statistics from the Ministry of Health. Of the 1,110 abortions performed in Polish clinics in 2019, 1,074 were caused by malformations in the fetus. But according to the constitutional court, that should no longer be possible.
However, even if there is a medical indication, many women in Poland already have great difficulties in aborting in the local hospital. This is because Polish law allows doctors and nurses to refuse these interventions by making a conscientious decision. As a result, many of those affected feel compelled to go abroad for an abortion, to Germany, Slovakia, Lithuania and Ukraine.
With Duda’s proposal, an abortion would not be possible in the future in Poland, for example, if a diagnosis indicates a disability such as Down syndrome, as it is not life-threatening. Duda also suggested that the state should continue to provide assistance to families with disabled children. The president’s proposal is unlikely to result in a breakthrough in the conflict: Most protesters are calling for a blanket liberalization of the abortion law.
With information from Jan Pallokat, ARD Studio Warsaw.
