The reaction was not long in coming.

Thousands of people took to the streets of dozens of cities in Poland on Friday 23 October to protest an almost total ban on abortion, despite the country's legislation already being among the most restrictive in the EU.

The Polish Constitutional Court on Thursday outlawed abortion in the event of a serious malformation of the fetus, a decision a priori final, yet contested by the liberal opposition and women's rights organizations in this country deeply rooted in the Catholic tradition.

"Yesterday's decision is the total ban on abortion in Poland, because 98% of legal abortions in Poland concern malformations of the fetus," Krystyna Kacpura, director of the Federation for women and family planning.

"It is an infamy of the Polish state towards half of its population, women. We will never forget it," she added.

From now on, the fate of women of modest condition becomes particularly "worrying", further worried Krystyna Kacpura.

"They'll only be left with dangerous methods, like having an abortion performed by unqualified people, with methods I don't even want to talk about."

In Warsaw, thousands of people, mostly young people, have flocked to the neighborhood where the leader of the ruling ultra-Catholic nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, resides.

Access to his house had been blocked by dozens of police vans and police officers in riot gear.

In other cities, demonstrators gathered in large squares, in front of local headquarters of the Law and Justice party, in front of churches or bishoprics.

"A violation of human rights"

Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Dunja Mijatovic reacted to the decision of the Constitutional Court on Thursday, denouncing in a press release a "violation of human rights".

Usunięcie podstawy niemal wszystkich legalnych aborcji w #Polska to praktycznie ich zakaz i naruszenie # PrawaCzlowieka.Dzisiejszy wyrok TK oznacza aborcje w podziemiu / za granicą dla tychęzla dovnykićićičičičičičičičičičičičičičičzałekičići wyrok TK oznacza aborcje w podziemiu / za granicą dla tychęzza ł ć

- Commissioner for Human Rights (@CommissionerHR) October 22, 2020

The leader of the European People's Party (EPP), former President of the European Council and former Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, meanwhile, pointed to "political villainy".

The judgment, in accordance with the wish of the PiS, restricts the right to abortion to only cases of danger to death for the pregnant woman and pregnancies resulting from rape or incest.

The Polish Presidency and the Polish Episcopate expressed their "satisfaction" after the judgment pronounced by this Tribunal, reformed by the PiS government and accused since of having in its ranks a number of judges loyal to this party.

According to official data, Poland, a country of 38 million inhabitants, recorded in 2019 only around 1,100 cases of abortion, the overwhelming majority of which were authorized because of an irreversible malformation of the fetus.

According to NGOs, the number of abortions performed clandestinely in Poland or in foreign clinics could reach nearly 200,000 per year.

With AFP

The summary of the week

France 24 invites you to come back to the news that marked the week

I subscribe

Take international news everywhere with you!

Download the France 24 application

google-play-badge_FR