Thousands of Poles protest anti-abortion bill
WARSAW: Thousands of Poles took to the streets Friday to protest plans to tighten the abortion law, as the Council of Europe warned the new measure ran counter to Warsaw’s human rights commitments.
In Warsaw, men and women carried large red signs shaped like hands with the word ‘Stop’, as well as others with slogans such as ‘we want choice, not terrorising’.
Around 55,000 people protested in the capital, according to city hall spokesman Bartosz Milczarczyk, whose boss the mayor belongs to the liberal opposition party.
The pro-government state television TVP estimated the number at several thousand protesters.
The ‘Black Friday’ rallies also took place in other cities across the country, including Gdansk, Krakow, Poznan, Szczecin and Wroclaw.
“I didn’t come here to talk politics but to defend our right to be able to choose what we want to do with our bodies,” said mother-of-two Agnieszka Siwek in Warsaw.
“Nor is this about religion. This is about a freedom that’s a fundamental right,” the 50-yearold protester told AFP.
Demonstrators had gathered outside parliament before marching through the city to the police-guarded headquarters of the ruling right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) party, which backs the citizen’s bill with the support of the Catholic hierarchy.
Others marched from the seat of the Warsaw archdiocese to the PiS headquarters, making stops in front of churches along the way.
“I’m here because I’m angry.... Our politicians are meddling in things that don’t concern them,” writer Joanna Olech said. — AFP