Thousands of Poles rally to defend women’s rights
WARSAW: Several thousand black- clad women took to streets across Poland to defend their reproductive rights, which they say are being curtailed under the conservative Law and Justice ( PiS) government.
Noticeably fewer protesters turned up than a year earlier, however, when tens of thousands staged demonstrations across the mainly Catholic country, which led lawmakers to reject a bill calling for a near-total ban on abortions.
In a rainy Warsaw, women carried signs with slogans like ‘ Women’s rights are human rights’ and ‘ Polish women in battle’.
“The fight continues. Participation is good, considering the weather,” said Agnieszka Wierzbicka, one of the protest organisers.
Smaller protests were held in the northern cities of Gdansk and Szczecin, the central city of Lodz and the western city of Katowice.
“We’re more aware now of the threat towards Polish women on the part of this government and of extreme-right circles, who all clearly take issue with women who want to make up their own minds about their lives, bodies and health,” a protester, Zofia Marciniak, told AFP.
Current legislation, passed in 1993, bans all abortions except in cases of rape or incest, or if the pregnancy poses a health risk to the mother or the foetus is severely deformed. — AFP