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Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and is published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.
President Karol Nawrocki on Sunday joined thousands of people on Poland’s largest annual anti-abortion march, which is held under the patronage of the Catholic church.
The National March of Life, which was first held in 2006, took place this year under the slogan “Faith and Fidelity 966-2026”, referring to the 1060th anniversary of the so-called “baptism of Poland”, when the country’s first ruler, Mieszko I, converted to Christianity.
“This is an incredibly important event because fundamental human rights continue to be questioned in Poland, Europe and around the world: the right to life, the right to protect one’s family, the right to raise children according to one’s beliefs,” declared one of the organisers, Lidia Sankowska-Grabczuk.
“However, faith and fidelity – the faith of our Christian civilisation, fidelity to our millennium-old heritage – these are the things that make our house truly last, built on a solid foundation,” she added, quoted by news website Interia.
Setki rodzin przeszły ulicami Warszawy w Narodowym Marszu Życia. Tegoroczne wydarzenie połączono z 1060. rocznicą chrztu Polski. Do radosnego pochodu dołączył prezydent @NawrockiKn. Narodowy Marsz Życia transmitowała @TV_Trwam.https://t.co/ST1WNWXuyR
— Radio Maryja (@RadioMaryja) April 19, 2026
Access to abortion has been a highly contested issue in Poland. In 2021, under the former national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) government, a near-total ban was introduced, allowing terminations only if a pregnancy threatened a mother’s life or health or was the result of a crime such as rape or incest.
A new, more liberal government took office in late 2023, promising to soften the law. However, it has failed to do so amid internal disputes within the ruling coalition over what form the new law should take. In 2024, Prime Minister Donald Tusk admitted there was little chance of abortion reform in the current parliamentary term.
Conservative groups have, however, strongly criticised other government policies, in particular the introduction of a new subject, health education, into schools. It includes elements relating to sex education and gender that the Catholic church claims are “anti-family” and “morally corrupting”.
A banner displayed at the march on Sunday showed a family being protected by an umbrella marked with a Polish flag from a rainbow-coloured downpour, representing LGBT+, a common motif at such events.
Nawrocki, a PiS-aligned conservative who took office last August, mingled with the March of Life as it passed the presidential palace. He was pictured signing placards bearing the event’s logo, which is an image of a foetus in a womb shaped like the borders of Poland.
“Thousands of people in the heart of Warsaw are showing how important life is to Poland, how important family is to Poland,” said Nawrocki. “That’s why the president of Poland cannot be absent today. I thank the organisers and the wonderful Polish families.”
Nawrocki also said that “this initiative certainly benefits Poland”, including by helping to tackle the country’s demographic crisis.
In each of the last 13 years, Poland has recorded more deaths than births. The fertility rate – meaning the average number of children that are born to a woman over her lifetime – fell to 1.1 in 2024, which is one of the lowest figures anywhere in the world.
However, many experts argue that the near-total abortion ban introduced in 2021, which is supported by Nawrocki and other pro-lifers, actually discourages women from wanting to get pregnant, due to fear that if a birth defect is diagnosed in their foetus, it is now illegal to terminate the pregnancy.
Since the tougher abortion law went into force, the annual number of births in Poland has dropped even further: from around 355,000 in 2020 to around 238,000 in 2025.
Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.
Main image credit: Przemysław Keler/KPRM
Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.
