Women Across Poland to Protest Abortion Ban Despite COVID-19 Restrictions

According to Ogolnopolski Strajk Kobiet (Polish Women's Strike), the main network of women protesting for the right to access legal abortion over the last few years, protestors will take to the streets in over 30 locations across Poland on Friday night.

In Warsaw, they intend to demonstrate outside the house of PiS leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski, who is thought to be politically responsible for the court's decision, which ruled that abortions in the case of abnormalities or serious illnesses of the foetus are illegal. Given, these abortions represent about 98 per cent of legal abortions performed in Poland (abortion on demand is illegal in Poland), the Constitutional Tribunal - widely assumed to be controlled by the governing party - has effectively banned abortion in the country.

Whether merely "going for a walk" or to light a candle next to the PiS headquarters in their towns, women will demonstrate their outrage at the court's decision, which they are determined not to let pass without a fight, even in the midst of a pandemic.

"Of course we will protest, look how many actions there are across Poland! We will not give birth against our will!" said Stanislawa Kuzio-Podrucka, from Zgorzelec, in southwest Poland, while sending over photos of the protest banners, on which is written: "I'm a woman, not an incubator" and "If I'm dead, I won't be giving birth".

"After the Tribunal's so-called verdict last night, I felt so angry that tears started falling down my cheeks," she said. "But I didn't feel powerless. I've been fighting against them for four years in this war for women's rights."

Back to Black Protests

Kuzio-Podrucka is one of countless women across Poland who took to the streets back in 2016 to protest a...