Thousands of people protested in Poland. Numerous demonstrations began in the country after the entry into force of the law banning abortion. More details - in the material of "Rambler".
What happened
Poland is the country with the strictest abortion laws in Europe. Since 1993, it has been possible to terminate a pregnancy only for three reasons: if the pregnancy threatens the mother's life, if it occurs as a result of a criminal act - rape or incest, and also if the fetus is found to have a serious and irreversible defect or an incurable disease that can lead to his death.
Now the country's Constitutional Court has decided to cancel the last condition, since, in accordance with the Constitution, an unborn child is also a person who is guaranteed the right to life, regardless of the pathologies identified. At the same time, according to the BBC, in 2019, due to incurable diseases of the fetus or severe defects, 98% of legal abortions were performed in Poland.
Why do people protest
The ban means that Polish women cannot go and terminate a pregnancy of their own free will, as is possible, for example, in Russia. According to experts, this leads to two irreversible processes. Firstly, many decide on clandestine abortions, risking their health and supporting illegal medicine. Secondly, "abortion tourism" has begun to develop: women travel to other countries for the procedure. There were 200 thousand such cases recorded.
Activists are in favor of legalizing abortion and liberalizing legislation. Moreover, these are not the first protests in Poland. For a long time, the issue periodically appeared on the agenda, but its consideration was constantly postponed due to the dissatisfaction of citizens. Thus, large-scale protests took place in the country in 2016, as well as in the fall of last year. In October, Polish women took to the streets almost every day for two weeks to protest the rights abuses. The actions were held in more than 400 cities of the country.
"Free choice, not terror",
- the slogan of the protesters who took to the streets on January 28.
"On the one hand, I am happy that I no longer live in a country that treats me like an incubator. On the other, I would like to be there today to scream,"
- Twitter user Ola Klapcinska wrote about the situation at home.
Why Poland adopted this law
Since 2015, power in Poland belongs to the conservative Law and Justice Party. She has many supporters, some of whom, on the contrary, are in favor of toughening legislation on this issue. In addition, the country has a very large influence of the Catholic Church.