Women’s rights activists infuriated by plans to tighten regulations to bring them into line with Catholic church’s teachings

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

Thousands of people have attended a pro-choice rally outside parliament in Warsaw after the leader of Poland’s ruling party backed a call from Catholic bishops for a full ban on pregnancy terminations.

Poland already has one of the most restrictive abortion laws in Europe. Official statistics show only a few hundred abortions are performed every year, but pro-choice campaigners say underground abortions are common.

The debate around reproductive rights in Poland has been building up for months. The conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party, which came to power in October, plans to tighten regulations to bring them into line with the Catholic church’s teachings, infuriating liberals and women’s rights activists.

Chanting “keep your hands off the uterus” and “my body, my business,” the protesters waved wire coat-hangers, a crude pregnancy termination tool widely seen as a grim symbol of underground abortions.

“Even Iran’s abortion laws are more liberal than this proposal. That’s why we must protest,” said Marta Nowak, one of the protesters at the rally, which was organised via social media by the leftwing Together party.

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Poland allows the termination of a pregnancy only at an early stage and when it threatens the life or health of the mother, when the baby is likely to be permanently handicapped or when pregnancy originates from a crime such as rape or incest.

In a letter read out in churches across the country on Sunday but made public earlier this week, Polish bishops called for legislative action to tighten the 1993 regulation.

“Catholics’ position on this is clear, and unchangeable. One needs to protect every person’s life from conception to natural death,” they said. “We ask the lawmakers and the government to initiate the legislation.“

The PiS leader, Jarosław Kaczyński, told reporters earlier this week that as a Catholic, he had to follow the bishops’ call. He said he would not force his party to vote for a ban in parliament, but was “convinced that a vast majority of the caucus, or perhaps all of it, will back the proposal”.

PiS plans to end state funding for in-vitro fertilization (IVF) and reinstate a prescription requirement for “morning after” emergency contraceptive pills.

The party has a majority in parliament, and Kaczyński’s influence means that the party’s MPs tend to follow his cue. The prime minister, Beata Szydło, also expressed support for a ban.