Poland's abortion laws were already among the strictest in Europe but the Constitutional Tribunal's ruling will amount in a near-total abortion ban. Many believe this was a direct result of Bishops and lay Catholic groups who have pressured the governing Law and Justice party to impose a stricter law. This is despite opinion polls clearly showing that the majority of Poles opposed a more restrictive law and an NGO, Action Democracy, gathering more than 210,000 signatures against the stricter law.

Ahead of the ruling, Polish sexual and reproductive health and rights activist Antonina Lewandowska told the BBC that the defence of the 1993 law was based on UN rules outlawing torture. She commented, "It's inhuman, it's despicable honestly to make anyone carry a pregnancy to term, especially if the foetus is malformed, and 98% of legal abortions carried out in Poland are due to foetal malformations."

The Constitutional Tribunal still found that abortion where “prenatal tests or other medical indications indicate a high probability of severe and irreversible foetal impairment or an incurable life-threatening disease” is a violation of the constitutional right to life. The country’s populist, socially conservative Law and Justice (PiS) government, which has been accused of eroding judicial independence, had packed the tribunal with loyalists.

These abortion cases have been classified by anti-abortion activists and hard-line Catholics as “eugenic abortions”. Around 98% of abortions in Poland had been conducted as a result of foetal defects, meaning the ruling bans virtually all termination procedures taking place in the country, and once the decision comes into effect terminations will only be allowed in cases of rape or incest or if the mother's health is at risk. Upon hearing the decision, many campaigners feared that this could now force women to carry a child even if they know the baby will not survive childbirth.

The decision was met with opposing opinions. Some celebrated the decision, and church leaders were amongst those who welcomed the tightening of laws. Marek Jędraszewski, the archbishop of Kraków, expressed “great appreciation for the courage” of the judges at the tribunal. Kaja Godek, a member of the Polish group Stop Abortion, commented: "Today Poland is an example for Europe, it's an example for the world.” 

However, not everybody expressed the same affection. The Council of Europe's Commissioner for Human Rights said the day marked a "sad day for women's rights". Some took to Twitter to voice their outrage, such as Dunja Mijatovic who declared that "removing the basis for almost all legal abortions in Poland amounts to a ban and violates human rights”. Agnieszka Kubal, a sociology and human rights scholar at University College London, told CNN of the wider implications of this decision: "This has to be read in the context of the wider right-wing discourse on abortion in Poland, that women cannot be trusted with the right to choose."

Many Polish women agreed with Kubal and took to the streets of Poland to express their outrage with their decision and removal of their freedom to choose. This was not the first time that protests had broken out in Poland concerning a woman’s right to choose. In 2016, an estimated 100,000 people, mostly women, protested to block an attempt to tighten the law.

In Łódź, a “funeral for women’s rights” was planned. “In a few days, hell for women will begin in this country,” said the description for a Facebook protest event organised in the city of Gdańsk this weekend in which participants were encouraged to block major traffic intersections despite current coronavirus restrictionslimiting public gatherings in Warsaw to just 10 people. The implications of such a restriction during a pandemic was also referenced by the former Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk who called the timing of the abortion issue “political wickedness” and commented that “throwing the topic of abortion and a ruling by a pseudo-court into the middle of a raging pandemic is more than cynical”.

Nevertheless, people still took to the streets and in Warsaw hundreds of people marched from the court to the home of Jaroslaw Kaczynski - who heads the governing Law and Justice party - to vent their anger at the ruling. Some held candles or carried signs with the word "torture" on them. Police responded to the protests and reports have claimed pepper spray was used against hundreds of protestors. 15 people were detained. In one video posted on social media, police officers are seen hitting a protester on the ground with a pepper spray can and spraying incoming protesters who attempted to help. However, police have said that officers only used pepper spray and physical force when some protesters threw stones and tried to push through the cordon around the house. 

Many groups still remain hopeful that Poland will soon undertake a journey similar to other Catholic countries such as Spain and Ireland, where society has become more secular, and strict abortion laws have gradually loosened over the years. “There are more and more people who want it liberalised, and only a tiny percentage want it restricted further,” said Karolina Więckiewicz, a pro-choice activist who has been part of a project to fund Polish women who need to travel abroad to receive abortions. 

One thing is clear. Poland is still very much a Catholic country and dedicated to upholding the views of the Bishops, who – according to one leftist legislator – now have “blood on their hands”. This decision serves no greater purpose than to increase the risk for Polish women as they access abortion services and try to exercise their right to choose – outside of their country, and the law itself.

Olivia is part of the Human Rights Pulse team. She publishes online content and manages subscriber communications as part of the Social Media and Marketing Team. Olivia is studying the BPTC LLM and hopes to be called to the Bar of England and Wales in the near future.

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