October 25, 2020

 

This Week in Human Rights News

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Abortion Rights in Poland

Sources: BBC, France 24, The Guardian, CoE Commissioner for Human Rights

  • Thousands of people marched in cities across Poland on Saturday in the third straight day of protests against a near-total ban on abortion, with some promising further action in the coming days.

  • On Thursday, Poland’s constitutional court ruled that the  existing law allowing the abortion of malformed foetuses was “incompatible” with the constitution.


Constitutional court ruling

  • Poland already had some of the EU's strictest abortion laws. Now, almost all abortions are banned - with exceptions only for cases of rape, incest, or where the mother's health is at risk.

  • The constitutional court is composed of judges nominated by the governing right-wing party, Law and Justice (PiS).

  • The verdict is also in line with what Poland’s Roman Catholic episcopates want. 

  • Although Poland is one of Europe's most staunchly Roman Catholic countries, opinion polls suggest there is a clear majority against making the abortion law stricter.

  • Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the Council of Europe’s commissioner for human rights have condemned the hearing, calling it a “sad day for #WomensRights”.

  • Thursday’s ruling outlawed abortions carried out when the foetus is malformed, which accounted for 98% of legal terminations last year.

  • Fewer than 2,000 legal terminations are carried out each year. But women's groups estimate that up to 200,000 abortions are either performed illegally, or abroad.


Protests of defiance

  • Demonstrations in cities across Poland went ahead in defiance of a government ban on public gatherings of more than 10 people in most major cities, imposed as measures to reduce the rising number of Covid-19 cases. 

  • Crowds of thousands, mainly composed of women, also included many men who said they were fighting a broader assault on individual rights by the conservative government. 

  • Some demonstrators carried wire coat hangers, a symbol of dangerous abortions that happen in conditions where safe abortions are not accessible.

  • Police vans and units in riot gear were dispatched Friday to guard the Warsaw home of the leader of Poland's right-wing ruling party, Jaroslaw Kaczynski. 

  • The angry crowds were heard chanting “This is war” and calling for the ruling team to step down.

 
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