Court upholds Polish mayor’s decision to dissolve anti-abortion protest over image of foetus

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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.

A court has upheld a decision by the city of Toruń to dissolve an anti-abortion protest because it featured a graphic image purporting to show an aborted foetus.

The organiser of the protest has condemned the ruling, which she says “violates the constitution, the law, freedom of speech and freedom of religion”.

But the city’s mayor welcomed the court’s decision, saying that, while he supports free speech, it must be expressed in a manner consistent with the law and without violating the dignity of others.

Last month, a group gathered at Toruń’s Old Town Square for a demonstration called “Public Rosary for the Moral Renewal of the Polish Nation”, which for years has been held on the 15th day of every month.

They displayed a banner opposing abortion that included an image purporting to show an aborted 11-week-old foetus. The same banner has been regularly displayed at the event, notes the Gazeta Wyborcza daily.

Another banner made the unsubstantiated claim that the government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk wants to teach four-year-old children how to masturbate. “Stop paedophilia,” it declared, alongside an image of an LGBT+ rainbow flag with a red line through it.

A city official twice asked the group to take down the banner showing an aborted foetus, but both times they refused. Consequently, the municipal authorities ordered the gathering to be dissolved.

“The decision to dissolve this assembly was dictated by concern for the standards of public space, which must guarantee every resident and visitor of the city a sense of security and comfort,” said mayor Paweł Gulewski, quoted by local news website otoTorun.

“In the urban space of Toruń, there is no place for content that may be considered drastic, shocking or violating the sense of dignity of others,” added Gulewski, who represents Tusk’s centrist Civic Platform (PO) party.

In response, the organiser of the gathering, Agnieszka Szumilas-Hermanowicz – who in 2023 stood as a parliamentary candidate for the far-right Confederation (Konfederacja) party – filed an appeal against the decision. Her case was supported by Ordo Iuris, a prominent conservative legal organisation.

“The mayor dissolved a peaceful, legal public meeting” just because “he did not like one of the banners, presenting what abortion looks like”, said Ordo Iuris lawyer Bartosz Malewski, who represented Szumilas-Hermanowicz.

On Friday, Toruń’s district court rejected the appeal, ruling that the mayor’s decision had been valid under a law banning “indecent announcements, inscriptions, drawings or words in a public place”. It also ordered Szumilas-Hermanowicz to pay the costs of the proceedings.

In his justification for the ruling, judge Andrzej Westphal quoted the Catechism of the Catholic Church. “We read in it that ‘the bodies of the deceased should be treated with respect and love stemming from faith and hope in the resurrection’,” said the judge.

The court’s decision was welcomed by Gulewski, who said that he now “expects future assemblies to be organised in a manner consistent with social norms and applicable law, with respect for the rights of all citizens”.

“Toruń is a city open to dialogue and diversity of opinions, but freedom of assembly does not mean freedom in the manner of expressing one’s views,” added the mayor.  “The relevant legal regulations clearly indicate that the presentation of indecent content is subject to restrictions.”

However, Szumilas-Hermanowicz declared the court’s decision to be “scandalous” and said that her group was “being gagged”, reports broadcaster TVP3 Bydgoszcz. She intends to appeal against the decision, according to Gazeta Wyborcza.

Meanwhile, on Saturday 15 March, the day after the ruling, Szumilas-Hermanowicz and her supporters went ahead with their monthly demonstration. Photographs from the event indicate that this time they did not display any images of aborted foetuses.

But Szumilas-Hermanowicz declared in a Facebook post that the city had “violated the constitution, law on gatherings, freedom of speech and freedom of religion”.

In 2020, the municipal authorities in Kraków, Poland’s second-largest city, passed a resolution banning the display of graphic images in public places. The measure was aimed in particular at signs and billboards showing the remains of terminated foetuses, which are often used by anti-abortion activists.

Last year, the head of a prominent anti-abortion group was convicted of defamation for organising a campaign in which vans covered in slogans linking LGBT+ people to paedophilia drive around Polish cities.

Last month, Poland’s best-known anti-abortion activist, Kaja Godek, was ordered by a court to apologise to a group of LGBT+ people who sued her for public statements in which she described homosexuality as a “perversion” that “often goes hand in hand with paedophilia”.

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: Maciej Wasilewski / Agencja Wyborcza.pl

Daniel Tilles

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.