Thousands protest in Poland for abortion rights

WARSAW, Poland (AFP) — Thousands protested on Thursday in Warsaw and over 20 other Polish cities Thursday, seeking abortion rights on the sixth anniversary of a near-total abortion ban imposed by Poland’s highest court. The demonstrations came days after Parliament passed two Bills that would ease abortion restrictions in the Catholic country, which are likely to be vetoed by Poland’s conservative president. “These are breadcrumbs,” Kinga Jelinska, director of the Women Help Women Foundation and co-founder of the Abortion Dream Team, told AFP. In the capital Warsaw, about 1,000 protesters demonstrated in front of Parliament, despite rain. “Over the last six years nothing has really changed,” said 36-year-old Milia Niemiec, who manages the ‘Abotak’ abortion centre which provides women with access to resources including pills and a space to be able to seek support or carry out the pharmacological abortion. Currently, abortion is only legal in Poland when a pregnancy results from a criminal act, like rape or incest, or when it threatens the life or health of the mother. Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s Government promised to liberalise abortion laws ahead of its 2023 election victory, but divisions within the coalition have slowed progress. “We demand decriminalisation and access to abortion through the public health-care system,” the protest organisers, which include several Polish activist and advocacy groups, wrote in an Instagram post. One Bill would partially decriminalise the termination of a pregnancy and decriminalise assisting abortion — which is currently punishable by up to three years in prison — while the second would reverse the effects of a 2020 ruling by Poland’s highest court, the Constitutional Tribunal, which outlawed abortion in cases of severe foetal deformities. Before the ruling, 98 per cent of legal abortions in Poland were performed for this reason. According to data from Poland’s National Health Fund (NFZ), only 573 abortions took place in Polish public hospitals in the first half of 2026. Last year, public hospitals carried out 851 abortions, according to the NFZ. The restrictions in 2020 set off a torrent of protests which became the largest demonstrations in Poland since the 1989 anti-communist movement. President Karol Nawrocki, who was endorsed by the then-ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party that championed and upheld the 2020 court ruling, is expected to veto both Bills.