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Large Protests to Take Place Against Poland's New Abortion Ban
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October 30, 2020
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1:45
1:08Now PlayingPoland’s most powerful politician is used to targeting what he sees as the nation’s enemies, whether liberal “elites” or the gay community. Now he’s turned on protesters against a law effectively banning abortion.
But as he stares down mounting anger, Law & Justice party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski’s message to the country this week underscored how the latest battle in Poland’s culture war risks becoming the biggest threat to the populist government since it came to power five years ago.
Demonstrations against making one of Europe’s tightest abortion laws even more restrictive are morphing into a wider show of defiance as the authorities struggle to get a grip on the coronavirus pandemic. With opponents mobilizing on the streets again on Friday, the clash looks like a critical moment for a government that’s been taking control over all facets of society in the name of ordinary Poles and Catholic traditions.
The trigger was an Oct. 22 ruling by the Constitutional Tribunal, a panel whose members are mainly party appointees, in a case raised by Law & Justice lawmakers and their allies. It said abortions are unconstitutional even when the fetus doesn’t stand a chance of living outside the womb.
Activists said carrying such pregnancies to term amounted to “torture” and protests erupted. Crowds of mostly women screamed obscenities at the government and held homemade signs ranging from “Enough Is Enough” to “Women’s Hell” and “This Is War.” On Wednesday, women went on a one-day strike and held 410 separate demonstrations across Poland in which nearly half a million people participated.
Kaczynski, 71, branded pro-choice protesters “nihilists” while the state television channel referred to them as “left-wing fascists” and “bearded women.” He called on his party faithful to stop any protesters targeting religious buildings after some services were disrupted and graffiti painted on the walls of shrines last weekend.
“We have to defend churches, we have defend them at any price,” Kaczynski, who returned to government as deputy prime minister this month, said in a video message on Wednesday. “This attack is aimed at destroying Poland.”
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