Women in Poland are demonstrating in more than 20 cities and towns on Thursday to protest against restrictions on access to free and legal abortion.
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Protesters accuse Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s liberal government of failing to deliver on its promise to ease the country’s strict abortion laws, despite parliament passing two bills on Tuesday aimed at relaxing the rules. Both measures are expected to face a veto from conservative President Karol Nawrocki.
Zofia Marcinek of the Warsaw-based reproductive rights group Abortion Dream Team described the legislation as a series of “token gestures” rather than a genuine attempt at reform, arguing that the government was aware the bills were unlikely to survive a presidential veto.
She accused the government of trying to win back women’s support ahead of next year’s parliamentary election by appearing to take action on abortion rights.
What the two abortion bills propose
Poland’s parliament voted on Tuesday to ease the country’s strict abortion laws, which are among the most restrictive in the European Union.
The first bill, proposed by Tusk’s Civic Coalition (KO) and the Left, would partially decriminalise abortion and remove criminal penalties for assisting someone in obtaining one, an offence currently punishable by up to three years in prison.
The second bill, introduced by the more conservative coalition partners Poland 2050 and the Polish Peasants’ Party (PSL), would overturn the effects of a 2020 Constitutional Tribunal ruling that banned abortion in cases of severe foetal abnormalities.
The first bill passed with 217 votes in favour, 213 against and three abstentions, while the second was approved by 233 votes to 203, with one abstention.
Where the protests are taking place
Alongside full decriminalisation, protesters are demanding access to legal abortion up to the 12th week of pregnancy, full access to the “morning-after” pill, and action by local authorities to disperse illegal protests held outside hospitals in Warsaw and Gdańsk and the AboTak clinic in Warsaw.
Demonstrations are planned in 26 Polish cities as well as in London.
