Abortion ruling amounts to a ban – what’s going on in Poland?

Dr Sydney Calkin (PhD)
Protests in Poland. Source: AAP.

Enormous protests are taking place across Poland in response to a new ruling striking down part of the 1993 abortion law — something that effectively amounts to a legal ban in a country that already took a very restrictive approach to abortion.

Abortion was previously allowed on three grounds. The constitutional court has ruled that the provision allowing abortion in the case of severe fetal anomaly is unconstitutional and is therefore banned.

The remaining grounds for legal abortion in Poland are when the pregnancy threatens life or health or when the pregnancy is the result of rape.

Over the last three years as part of my research on medication abortion and changing patterns of abortion access, I’ve interviewed many pro-choice activists inside Poland and in the countries where Polish abortion-seekers travel.