Poland: Pro-abortion activists target churches

Pro-abortion activists in Poland attacked churches this week after its highest court strengthened legal protections for unborn children.

Last week, the Constitutional Tribunal ruled that the current law allowing abortion on the grounds of disability is unconstitutional, but abortions will still be permitted in cases of rape, incest, or if the mother’s health is at risk.

The change in the law follows the 2017 citizens’ initiative ‘Shut Down Abortion’, which received 830,000 signatures.

Protests

On Sunday, protestors stormed churches across the country carrying placards with messages including “Let’s pray for the right to abortion”.

Church buildings in Warsaw were defaced with slogans such as “unlimited abortions”.

Pro-abortion protestors shouting “This is war” had previously broken lockdown rules to clash with police forces defending the home of Deputy Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski in Warsaw.

One activist, Antonina Lewandowska, slammed the new protections saying: “It’s inhuman, it’s despicable honestly to make anyone carry a pregnancy to term, especially if the foetus is malformed”.

‘Defend abortion’

Commentators and politicians also attacked the pro-life ruling.

Dunja Mijatovic, the Council of Europe’s commissioner for human rights, said the court’s decision was a “sad day for women’s rights.”

Ann Furedi, Chief Executive of Abortion giant BPAS (British Pregnancy Advisory Service), claimed that it “is absolutely not a discriminatory or eugenic decision” to abort unborn disabled children.

The Observer decried the high court’s decree as “oppressive” and “narrow”, even going as far to say it was “a moral obscenity”.