Police deployed force last night against demonstrators protesting in front of the Constitutional Tribunal in Warsaw over a ruling that introduces a near total ban on abortion in Poland. Crowds also gathered in other Polish cities to oppose the ruling, which entered into force on Wednesday.
According to media reports, doctors have already begun cancelling planned abortion procures on the basis of the judgement, which declared that terminations in the case of foetal defects (which make up around 98% of abortions in Poland) are unconstitutional.
Meanwhile, the government – which has supported the restriction of abortion – is reportedly preparing a support package for women who give birth to children with disabilities. It would provide them with financial help and create special wards in hospitals.
Yesterday, for a second night in a row, large crowds gathered across Poland to express opposition to the abortion ruling. They represent a resumption of last autumn’s protests, when hundreds of thousands came onto the streets in what were the largest demonstrations in Poland’s post-communist history.
While Wednesday gatherings were peaceful, last night a confrontation developed in Warsaw when the demonstration reached the Constitutional Tribunal and some participants entered its grounds. One reportedly hammered nails into its doors.
At that point, police cordoned off the protesters and announced that they could not leave until they showed identity cards. After a standoff of around five hours, officers began removing demonstrators by force and taking them to police vehicles.
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Among those detained was Klementyna Sucharows – one of the leaders from Women’s Strike, the main organiser of the protests – and an elderly lady known as “Babcia Kasia” (Grandma Kate) who has become a prominent figure during the demonstrations.
The spokesman for Warsaw police, Sylwester Marczak, announced today that they had detained 14 people, six of them for offences including “violation of the bodily integrity of police officers and infringement of privacy”, reports Gazeta.pl. He also noted that two officers had been injured and police vehicles were damaged.
Marczak stressed that the restrictions imposed to curb the spread of the coronavirus are still in place and that the participants did not comply with social distancing rules. Police notified the sanitary authorities of violations by 370 demonstrators.
In response, Marta Lempart, the head of Women’s Strike, said that protesters had been “wrongfully detained on charges of participating in an illegal assembly”. She noted that courts have repeatedly thrown out cases against demonstrators facing such charges.
Meanwhile, hospitals began to adjust to the publication of the ruling. At one in Kraków, a team of doctors had on Wednesday morning signed a referral for a women to receive an abortion, after examination confirmed an incurable and fatal defect of her foetus. However, the procedure had to be called off later the same day.
“Unfortunately [the ruling] means that no hospital can conduct the procedure for this patient, nor any other in a similar situation,” the director of Krakow University Hospital’s department of obstetrics and neonatology, Hubert Huras, told Gazeta Wyborcza.
In recent years, around 1,000 legal abortions have been performed in Poland annually. But that figure will fall significantly – potentially to near zero – as a result of the ruling. It is estimated that tens of thousands of abortions already take place illegaly each year, while many Polish women also obtain terminations abroad.
While opposition figures have criticised the ruling and some have joined the protests, many politicians from the conservative ruling coalition expressed satisfaction that it has finally come into force. “I’m pleased,” said Anna Siarkowska, an MP from the Law and Justice (PiS) party, quoted by Wirtualna Polska.
Thanks to the ruling, Poland has become one of the few countries where protection of life is being expanded, added Sierakowska. She warned that any attempts to find “loopholes in order to kill babies due to their state of health [would be] unacceptable”.
However, one lawmaker from PiS’s more moderate junior coalition partner, Agreement (Porozumienie), admitted that she now “regrets” supporting the motion to the Constitutional Tribunal that led to the anti-abortion ruling.
“When I signed the motion, I didn’t predict the consequences. I didn’t think it through. I didn’t expect it would stir such emotions,” said Iwona Michałek.
Meanwhile, the ruling coalition is already discussing ways to support women who must give birth to disabled children as a result of the ruling, reports Gazeta Wyborcza. The health ministry is said to have been preparing such a proposal for months.
“The government should present a complex support package for mothers as soon as possible,” said Bartłomiej Wróblewski, a PiS MP and one of the instigators of the abortion ruling . “We will keep pushing for such solutions.”
Together with a “parliamentary group for life and family”, Wróblewski is calling for a package that would provide monthly support of 1,500 złoty (€330) for families with disabled children as well as a one-time benefit of up to 20,000 złoty (€4,400).
They would also like to see special units in hospitals for women giving birth to babies with serious disabilities, and for caring for a disabled child to be officially recognised as work, which would secure the right to a state pension.
Main image credit: Kuba Atys / Agencja Gazeta
Agnieszka Wądołowska is deputy editor of Notes from Poland. She has previously worked for Gazeta.pl and Tokfm.pl and contributed to Gazeta Wyborcza, Wysokie Obcasy, Duży Format, Midrasz and Kultura Liberalna
