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Thousands of people defied coronavirus restrictions to protest a near-total ban on abortion in Poland in the biggest show of defiance against the new law yet.
Downtown Warsaw was overwhelmed by protesters on Friday, with Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski claiming that around 100,000 took part in the march.
It was the culmination of nine days of protests against a ruling by Poland’s constitutional court earlier this month that abortion in cases of severe fetal abnormalities is unconstitutional.
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The October 22 decision toughens the already strict abortion laws in Poland, which prohibits them unless they are the result of rape or incest, endanger the life of the mother or there are fetal deformities.
Activists see it as an almost complete ban on the right to interrupt, as the vast majority of abortions in the country are carried out due to fetal abnormalities.
Women had banners that read ‘I wish I could abort my government’
After Friday night fell, women marched through the Polish capital with signs reading “I wish I could abort my government” and “even Shrek wouldn’t want to live in such a swamp.”
The demonstration was supposed to end in front of the house of Jaroslaw Kaczynski, leader of the ruling Law and Justice party, but the police blocked the street some distance from his house.
Police officers came in great numbers to patrol the demonstration.
There was a large police presence as far-right activists and soccer hooligans emerged to stage a counter-protest.
Twelve people were arrested, local police said.
For the past week, religious services were disrupted and priests clashed as activists attacked the new Roman Catholic-influenced policy.
Activists see this month’s court ruling as a near-total ban on abortion.
But the vast majority of the protests have passed peacefully, with music, dances and men in solidarity, wearing the symbol of the red ray that has come to represent the movement.
Klementyna Suchanow, one of the key organizers of Poland’s women’s strike initiative, said she and many others refuse to be deterred by COVID-19 rules that prohibit groups of more than five.
Protesters light flares in Warsaw on Friday
She said the ruling is a violation of human rights, adding: “It is about the freedom and dignity of the people. The will of the people to protest should be a lesson for anyone who wants to impose authoritarian forms.”
The government denies any violation of human rights. Poland’s abortion law, one of the strictest in the world, was forged by political leaders and the Catholic Church in 1993 after the fall of communism.
