Thousands protested for a third consecutive night in Warsaw and other parts of Poland after the country’s right-wing government passed a court ruling imposing an almost total ban on abortion.
Protesters defied coronavirus restrictions and sub-zero temperatures to pull together after the controversial ruling came into force on Wednesday.
In Warsaw, they waved Polish and gay rainbow flags and used the red lightning symbol used by Women’s Strike – the main organization behind the protests.
“My body, my choice”, “The revolution has a womb” and “You have blood on your hands” read the posters during the demonstration.
Some of the participants also wore green handkerchiefs around their necks on Friday – the symbol of abortion rights activists in Argentina, where abortion was legalized last month.
Thousands also took to the streets in Warsaw and other major cities on Wednesday, and several protesters were arrested on Thursday after entering the perimeter of the constitutional court, which issued the ruling.
The ruling means that all abortions in Poland are now banned, except in cases of rape and incest, or if the mother’s life or health is endangered.
The ruling found that abortions in cases of fetal abnormalities are not compatible with the constitution.
Predominantly Catholic Poland already had one of Europe’s most restrictive laws on abortion. There are less than 2,000 legal abortions annually and groups of women estimate that an additional 200,000 women have abortions illegally or abroad.
The government said the ban would stop “eugenic abortions”, citing the termination of fetuses diagnosed with Down’s syndrome, but human rights groups said it would force women to carry non-viable pregnancies.
The ruling only appeared in October, but the government tried to formalize it amid mass protests that quickly adopted broader anti-government slogans.
Ludwik Dorn, a commentator who wrote in the Gazeta Wyborcza newspaper, said the government had probably decided to publish the verdict now to ensure protests “burn out” before more government anger over the handling of the coronavirus pandemic and the deployment of the vaccine. .
“It was the least bad time,” he wrote.
Dorn also said that the ruling party (PiS) can hope for divisions between opponents of the ruling – those who want greater abortion rights and those who support the previous status quo.