Thousands of people on Friday joined protests in Warsaw and other Polish cities against the conservative government’s latest attempt to restrict abortion.
Many voiced anger more broadly at the policies of the ruling Law and Justice party, which has been accused by domestic critics and international bodies of eroding democracy and civic freedoms.
“This is against attempts at taking away our right to decide what we want,” said Paulina Rudnik, a 44-year-old lawyer at the Warsaw protest.
Photo: Agencja Gazeta / Dawid Zuchowicz via Reuters
In the crowds around her, people held banners that read “Free choice” and “A woman is a human being,” and chanted slogans demanding reproductive freedom.
Poland has one of the strictest laws in Europe, allowing abortion only if the woman’s life is at risk, the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest, or the fetus is damaged.
An attempt to ban all abortions in 2016 sparked mass nationwide protests by women dressed in black that forced the government to abandon the plan.
The proposed legislation would continue to allow abortions in cases where the mother’s life is at risk or the pregnancy results from a crime.
However, it would ban abortions of irreparably damaged fetuses and those with Down syndrome.
In Warsaw, protesters gathered at the seat of the influential Roman Catholic bishops, who support further tightening of the law.
Beating drums and blowing horns, they marched to parliament and then moved on to the headquarters of the ruling right-wing party, which houses the office of party chairman Jaroslaw Kaczynski.
“I hope this protest has the same effect as the one in 2016. Forcing women to have babies is inhuman,” 26-year-old graphic designer Karolina Chelminska said.
A protest of hundreds in Wroclaw, Poland, included a sign that read: “I will not give birth to a dead baby.”
Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Nils Muiznieks and UN experts have urged parliament to reject the bill.
The legislation was proposed by a civic organization and is now at the commission stage in parliament.
CONDITIONS: The Russian president said a deal that was scuppered by ‘elites’ in the US and Europe should be revived, as Ukraine was generally satisfied with it Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday said that he was ready for talks with Ukraine, after having previously rebuffed the idea of negotiations while Kyiv’s offensive into the Kursk region was ongoing. Ukraine last month launched a cross-border incursion into Russia’s Kursk region, sending thousands of troops across the border and seizing several villages. Putin said shortly after there could be no talk of negotiations. Speaking at a question and answer session at Russia’s Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, Putin said that Russia was ready for talks, but on the basis of an aborted deal between Moscow’s and Kyiv’s negotiators reached in Istanbul, Turkey,
SPIRITUAL COUPLE: Martha Louise has said she can talk with angels, while her husband, Durek Verrett, claims that he communicates with a broad range of spirits Social media influencers, reality stars and TV personalities were among the guests as the Norwegian king’s eldest child, Princess Martha Louise, married a self-professed US shaman on Saturday in a wedding ceremony following three days of festivities. The 52-year-old Martha Louise and Durek Verrett, who claims to be a sixth-generation shaman from California, tied the knot in the picturesque small town of Geiranger, one of Norway’s major tourist attractions located on a fjord with stunning views. Following festivities that started on Thursday, the actual wedding ceremony took place in a large white tent set up on a lush lawn. Guests
Four days after last scanning in for work, a 60-year-old office worker in Arizona was found dead in a cubicle at her workplace, having never left the building during that time, authorities said. Denise Prudhomme, who worked at a Wells Fargo corporate office, was found dead in a third-floor cubicle on Aug. 20, Tempe police said. She had last scanned into the building on Aug. 16 at 7am, police said. There was no indication she scanned out of the building after that. Prudhomme worked in an underpopulated area of the building. Her cause of death had not been determined, but police said the preliminary
‘DISCONNECTED’: Politics is one factor driving news avoidance, a professor said, adding that people who do not trust the government are more likely to tune it out Hannah Wong cried when the Hong Kong government effectively forced the territory’s Apple Daily and Stand News out of business three years ago. Among the last news firms in the territory willing to criticize the government openly, many saw their end as a sign that the old Hong Kong was gone for good. Today, the 35-year-old makeup artist says she has gone from reading the news every day to reducing her intake drastically to protect herself from despair. Four years into a crackdown on dissent that has swept up democracy-leaning journalists, rights advocates and politicians in the territory, a lot of people
RSS