Polish court rules against abortion due to fetal defect

The move to further ban abortions was followed for months by Poland’s democratic government, and created a climate of fear among women’s rights activists and human rights monitors.

About 98% of abortions in Poland were performed as a result of a fetal defect, which means that all termination procedures in the country are banned by the ruler. Campaigners said on Thursday that even if they knew the baby would not survive childbirth, it could force women to carry the baby.

The Constitutional Court’s ruling on Thursday marks the first change in Polish abortion law since 1993, but it comes after years of efforts by the government to reduce the use of termination.

The council was condemned by Europe’s human rights commissioner, Dunja Mijatovich, who called Thursday a “sad day for women’s rights.”

Mijatovich tweeted, “Removing the basis for almost all legal abortions in Poland is tantamount to a ban and a violation of human rights.” “Today’s ruling by the Constitutional Court means abortion underground / abroad for those who can undergo the ordeal for all others.”

Poland’s ruling party, Law and Justice, has put anti-abortion rhetoric at the center of its socialist agenda, and has tried to pass a bill banning abortion due to fetal defects in the early weeks of the coronavirus epidemic.

The plan was eventually overturned in the Polish parliament, but was later overturned by the country’s highest court. Law and judges spend more of their time in office tightening their grip on the courts, removing judges who are considered politically objectionable, replacing critics’ claims with political appointments, and raising disciplinary action against judges who do not make judgments ministers. Agree with

“There is now an effective ban on abortion in Poland,” Agnieszka Kubble, a sociology and human rights scholar at University College London, told CNN. “This should be read in the context of the broad right-wing discourse on abortion in Poland, that women cannot be trusted with the right to choose.”

Early efforts to ban abortion legally led women’s rights activists to the streets, with massive demonstrations in 2016 and subsequent years. In April this year, many activists used their cars to demonstrate without violating the Covid-19 ban.

CNN’s Artur Osinski and Sarah Dee contributed to the reporting