Despite coronavirus lockdowns, Poland’s parliament is set to discuss a controversial abortion bill this week. Along with criminalising sex education, it would ban abortion in cases of severe foetal anomaly. Currently, this is one of only three legal grounds for terminating a pregnancy in Poland, which has one of Europe’s most restrictive abortion laws.
Reproductive rights activists have accused the ruling Law and Justice party of “exploiting the current health crisis to undermine women’s and young people’s safety”. A petition to reject the bill has now been signed by 170 MPs, MEPs and senators from 24 European countries, but only nine of them are from Poland.
Previous attempts to pass similar bills were met by mass protests, including a nationwide women’s strike in 2016 and further demonstrations in 2017. But these kinds of protests are impossible today under coronavirus emergency measures.
