After the death of a pregnant woman in hospital over the weekend in Poland, tens of thousands demonstrated against restrictive abortion law, which could be tightened even further by a new bill.

In Warsaw, opposition leader Donald Tusk said that the rulers in Poland put their ideology above the people.

This is no longer a normal political argument.

The rally ended with a minute's silence and then with a “minute of screaming”.

Rallies were held in dozens of other cities over the weekend.

Opposition MPs described the politicians of the right-wing ruling party PiS several times in the media as “political murderers” or “executioners of women”.

Gerhard Gnauck

Political correspondent for Poland, Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania based in Warsaw.

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The protests against the government were the largest in Poland since the Constitutional Court ruled in the autumn of last year to tighten abortion law, which was already restrictive at the time.

Up until now, abortion has been legal in Poland if the pregnancy endangers the life or health of the mother, is the result of rape or if the unborn child has severe malformations.

The court, which was made up of judges close to the government, decided at the time that women should not have abortions if they had severe malformations.

The reason for the protests was the death of the pregnant, 30-year-old Izabela in the hospital in the Upper Silesian town of Pless (Pszczyna). The family lawyer made the case public and held the legal position responsible for the woman's death. According to the lawyer, the hospital doctors had therefore not dared to save the woman's life by aborting the pregnancy. In the 22nd week the malformed fetus finally died, the woman died of sepsis. The Ministry of Health ordered an investigation into the case; PiS politicians said an abortion could have been performed because of the threat to “life or health”.

On the day Izabela died, a bill came into parliament that bans abortion completely and threatens those involved in abortion with sentences of up to 25 years in prison.

Critics pointed out that a raped woman who had an abortion would spend longer in prison than the rapist.