WARSAW: Women's rights organizers are preparing for what they say will be the largest protest so far in over a week of mass nationwide street demonstrations in Poland triggered by a court ruling banning abortions of congenitally damaged fetuses.
The march is planned for Friday evening in Warsaw, the capital, in defiance of government appeals that people stay home due to skyrocketing coronavirus infections. Poland has hit new records almost daily this week, with over 21,600 new COVID-19 cases new cases in one day reported Friday.
The national public prosecutor has vowed to file criminal charges against organizers of the protests for “causing an epidemiological threat," a charge that could carry a prison sentence of up to eight years.
Education Minister Przemyslaw Czarnek also threatened to cut off funds to universities that have supported the protests. Some canceled classes during a nationwide strike on Wednesday. Czarnek said that university presidents "who encourage their students and academic teachers to take part in the demonstrations contribute to increasing the risk of the coronavirus pandemic.”
The news portal Onet reported Friday that Warsaw's district court was preparing to handle a large number of cases.
The past week of social upheaval followed a ruling last week by the constitutional court, which ruled that abortion in the cases of severe fetal deformities is unconstitutional.
The protests included people disrupting Mass and spray-painting slogans on churches last Sunday, actions that offended even many Poles who disagree with the court ruling.
The ruling Law and Justice party leader, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, has since called on supporters to defend churches. And TVP, the state broadcaster which is used as a party mouthpiece, has been condemning the protesters, repeatedly calling them “left-wing fascists” and in a Thursday evening broadcast comparing them to totalitarian regimes that oppressed the church.
Poland already had one of Europe's most restrictive laws, which was forged in 1993 between the political and Catholic church leaders of the time. It allowed abortion only in the cases of fetal defects, risk to the woman's health as well as incest or rape.
Last week's constitutional court ruling leaves only the woman's health or pregnancy resulting from crimes as legal reasons for abortion.
Health Ministry figures show that 1,110 legal abortions were carried out in Poland in 2019, mostly because of fetal defects.
Polish women seeking abortions get them in Germany or other nearby nations, or illegally in Poland.