Opponents of a bid to ban abortion in Poland staged a protest by the parliament buildings in Warsaw on Saturday.

Police said around 5,000 people took part in the protest, many of them dressed in black.

Women chanted: "My body, my affair!" Some brandished placards resembling an obituary notice which read: “We are saddened to inform you of the death of women’s rights.”

The demonstration, backed by the Save Women group, was attended by members of the Razem party, the opposition Nowoczesna and Civic Platform parties, Greens, the Committee for the Defence of Democracy, feminist and women’s groups.

The protest came after a controversial citizens’ initiative to tighten staunchly Catholic Poland’s already restrictive abortion laws cleared a key parliamentary hurdle last week. The bill was sent by MPs to the committee stage.

That initiative, by the Stop Abortion group, is backed by some 450,000 signatures.

It calls for a total ban on abortion - even in cases of rape and incest - and would make women who terminate pregnancies liable to jail time.

At the same time, members of parliament rejected a rival bid to liberalise abortion laws.

The pro-choice initiative by the Save Women coalition had been backed by over 215,000 signatures. It called for women to be allowed to terminate pregnancy on demand, up to the 12th week of pregnancy.

Poland’s current law on abortion, passed in 1993, bans terminations unless there was rape or incest, the pregnancy poses a health risk to the mother or the foetus is severely deformed.

Earlier this week, fraction leaders decided the European Parliament would hold a debate on Wednesday on the situation of women in Poland.

Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydło slammed that decision, saying it showed that the European Parliament is losing its credibility, that the EU treaty needs to be changed and the bloc needs to be reformed.

Women opposed to tightening the country’s abortion laws are planning to stage strikes in a number of Polish cities on Monday. (pk)