Police in Warsaw block marchers demanding abortion rights
WARSAW, Poland — Police blocked protesters from marching in Poland’s capital as demonstrations took place across the country on Saturday against an attempt to restrict abortion rights and recent police violence.
Police and protesters played a game of cat and mouse in Warsaw as officers set up cordons which the protesters sought to evade. At one point, protest participants gathered on a major thoroughfare, causing traffic to back up. As drivers honked, the protesters shouted: “We are sorry for the inconvenience, we have a government to overthrow.”
Police issued warnings that the demonstration was illegal because it was not registered ahead of time and violated a pandemic-related ban on large gatherings. “We have a right to protest,” participants chanted.
Officers used tear gas against an opposition lawmaker, Barbara Nowacka, who had been intervening “in defence of peacefully protesting women,” Borys Budka, the head of Poland’s centrist Civic Platform party, said.
Protests in Krakow, Gdansk and other cities were organized to celebrate Polish women gaining the right to vote 102 years ago. The events were planned under the slogan: “In the name of mother, daughter, sister.”
The demonstrations were part of what has evolved into Poland’s largest protest movement since communism fell in the country 30 years ago.
An Oct. 22 ruling by the Polish constitutional court to ban abortions of fetuses with congenital defects, even when the fetus has no chance of survival at birth, sparked the protests.
Amid mass protests, the government has not implemented the court ruling.