Demonstrators gathered in towns and cities across Poland on Thursday evening to demand that Donald Tusk's government keep its promise to relax the country's near-total abortion ban, Notes from Poland reports.
The protests marked six years since the Constitutional Tribunal ruling that outlawed abortion for severe foetal defects, but were far smaller than the mass demonstrations of 2020. A few hundred people rallied in the rain outside parliament in Warsaw, about 1,000 in Wroclaw and several hundred in Katowice and Poznan, many holding red cards as a warning ahead of next year's election.
This week the Sejm passed two bills, one reversing the 2020 ruling and one decriminalising help to obtain an abortion. Many protesters want abortion on demand up to 12 weeks, and President Karol Nawrocki, who opposes abortion, is expected to veto both bills.
Source: Notes from Poland