WARSAW, Poland (AP) – Poles oppose abortion to protest recent steps by the new government to liberalize the Catholic-majority country’s strict laws and allow abortions up to 12 weeks of pregnancy. Thousands of people marched in Warsaw on Sunday.
Many participants in the downtown march were carrying children in prams, while others carried white and red flags and posters depicting fetuses in the womb.
Poland’s Catholic Church called for Sunday to be a day of prayer “for pregnant life” and supported a march organized by the anti-abortion movement.
“With the anti-abortion movement in recent months, this march is a rare opportunity to show support for protecting human life from conception to natural death,” the anti-abortion movement said in a statement.
They were referring to the ongoing national debate over steps Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s four-month-old government is taking to loosen tough laws introduced by its conservative predecessor. Ta.
People participating in the March for Life demonstration by pro-life groups against the liberalization of abortion rights in Warsaw, April 14, 2024 (Photo by Wojtek Radwanski/AFP) (Photo by Wojtek Radwanski/AFP via Getty Images)
Poland’s parliament, dominated by a liberal and pro-European Union coalition, voted last week to approve further detailed work on four proposals to lift the country’s near-ban on abortion.
The process could take weeks or months and is expected to be ultimately vetoed by conservative President Andrzej Duda, who has one year left in his term. Last month, Duda vetoed a bill that would have made the morning-after pill available over-the-counter starting at age 15.
Poland, with a population of about 38 million, is looking for ways to increase its birth rate, which currently stands at about 1.2 children per woman, the lowest in the European Union. Poland’s society is aging and shrinking, a fact that the previous right-wing government used to argue for stricter abortion laws.
People participating in the March for Life demonstration by pro-life groups against the liberalization of abortion rights in Warsaw, April 14, 2024 (Photo by Wojtek Radwanski/AFP) (Photo by Wojtek Radwanski/AFP via Getty Images)
Currently, abortion is only allowed in cases of rape, incest, or when the woman’s life or health is at risk. According to the Ministry of Health, 161 abortions were performed in Polish hospitals in 2022. But abortion advocates estimate that around 120,000 women undergo abortions in Poland each year, most of them secretly obtaining the pills from abroad.
Women who attempt abortions themselves are not punished, but those who assist them can be sentenced to up to three years in prison. As a result, reproductive rights advocates say, doctors are refusing women even approved cases for fear of their own legal repercussions.
One of the four proposals being processed in Congress would decriminalize assistance for women to obtain abortions. Another option, proposed by a party whose leader is openly Catholic, would maintain the ban in most cases but allow abortion if the fetus is defective. The right was abolished in a 2020 court ruling. The remaining two aim to allow abortions up to 12 weeks.
