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WARSAW (Reuters) - Several thousand Poles dressed in black marched through city streets in Poland on Tuesday in defense of women’s rights, on the first anniversary of mass protests against a planned near-total ban on abortion.

“We go out because the fight continues,” organizers of the Black Tuesday protest said on social media. “Let them see us, let them hear us, let them know that we are not afraid.”

The Warsaw city council said about four thousand people marched in the Polish capital.

The protests took place as proponents of a ban on abortions are pushing a draft bill to exclude terminating a pregnancy if the baby is likely to be permanently handicapped.