Poland's Constitutional Court rules in favor of toughening abortion legislation

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Women in Poland are less owners of their bodies since Thursday.

The Constitutional Court has declared

, thus reducing the legal assumptions for abortion to rape, incest and serious risk to the health of the mother.

The ruling, which has unleashed a barrage of reactions to the contrary, including that of the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, condemns Polish women to clandestine abortion or to end pregnancy outside the country.

The data speaks for itself.

In Poland, with one of the most restrictive laws in the European Union on this matter,

were performed last year

, according to the Ministry of Health.

In 98% of the cases it was due to a malformation of the fetus.

Collectives for women's rights and reproductive health argue, however, that this is only the tip of the iceberg.

Apart from clandestine abortions, which always pose a risk to women, it is estimated that between 80,000 and 120,000 Polish women travel abroad every year to interrupt pregnancy.

"It is inhumane to force a woman to complete a pregnancy when there is a malformation of the fetus", affirms the lawyer of the Helsinki Foundation,

, for whom the sentence is "absolutely unjustifiable" and condemns the woman to "torture for life ".

Also from the opposition there have been criticisms of the ruling.

"There will no longer be abortions in Poland, but there will be mothers with children with anencephaly, spina bifida, without heart, ... and children who will die in agony," lamented the deputy of the leftist

.

Former Prime Minister and former President of the European Council Donald Tusk, spoke of "political villainy" and through Twitter pointed out that "launching the abortion issue and ruling in a pseudo-court in the midst of a raging pandemic is more than cynicism."

For PiS, the high court ruling is, however,

.

The safe conduct he needed to modify the rule that thousands of women dressed in black defended every Monday and for weeks with rallies outside the Parliament.

On that occasion, and given the

, with aftershocks throughout the country, the leader of PiS and current deputy minister, Jaroslaw Kaczynski withdrew the project, but accustomed as he is to not giving his arm to twist, he let a group of MPs did what they had to do.

Through the back door and in due time.

They filed a complaint with the TC a year ago, practically the time that Judge Julia Przylebska has been in charge of the court.

Przylebska acceded to the position by nomination of PiS in the framework of a reform of the judicial system denounced by the European Commission.

With the endorsement of the TC,

, which only contemplated three cases.

The architects of this setback congratulate themselves.

"Life has won! Life is the most important thing!" Deputy Artur Dziambor said on Twitter.

The very conservative and influential Polish Catholic Church, which supported the first anti-abortion attempt of the PiS, although it was later withdrawn because the project provided prison sentences for women and abortion doctors, has not commented on the ruling of the TC at the close of this edition.

You may still be ruminating on Pope Francis' statements about gay couples.

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