Law on abortion in Poland takes effect

WARSAW, Poland — Poles took to the streets of Warsaw, Gdansk and other cities for a third night of protests Friday after a near-total abortion ban took effect, leaving Poland with one of the most restrictive laws in Europe.

The constitutional court ruled in October to ban abortions in cases of fetal disorders, even severe and fatal ones, and the ruling became law Wednesday. That triggered a new round of the mass demonstrations that began Oct. 22 and which have morphed into the largest protest movement in Poland in the three decades since communism fell.

The ruling was made by a court under the political control of the ruling right-wing party, Law and Justice, which had faced pressure from ultraconservative lobbyists to further restrict what had already been one of the European Union’s most restrictive laws.

Those who favored the restriction say they are trying to preserve human life, and have often argued that they want to prevent the abortion of fetuses with Down syndrome.

Opponents call the law draconian, noting that it forces women to carry to term even fetuses with lethal defects or with disorders so considerable they could live their entire lives severely disabled or even in a vegetative state.

Tensions have grown increasingly between protesters and police, who were out in large numbers Friday.

Marta Lempart, one of the leaders of the Women’s Strike group that has spearheaded street protests against the law, encouraged protesters in Warsaw to keep up their struggle. She pointed to the example of Argentina, which recently liberalized its abortion law after years of failed attempts.

“What we have now is a stage” of the larger struggle, she said.

Women’s Strike said Friday that 14 people were detained Thursday on the second night of protests — which were held despite a prohibition on public gatherings because of the covid-19 pandemic. Warsaw police said they had detained several people for entering the grounds of the Constitutional Tribunal in Warsaw.