Poland restricts the right to abortion

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The Polish justice declared unconstitutional the Legal Interruption of Pregnancy (ILE) for malformation of the fetus. The measure would ban 98 percent of abortions performed in the country.

People with green scarves and masks with the red ray which identifies the fight in favor of the voluntary interruption of pregnancy in Poland came to the vicinity of the Court to protest (photo) the measure that restricts the right to decide of pregnant people. At least 14 people were arrested on the second night of demonstrations in rejection of the promulgation of the judicial sentence.

We will meet here since this state thinks it can appropriate our freedom, Marta Lempart, one of the founders of Huelga de Mujeres, one of the popular forces that supports the right to decide, told the crowd. In October of last year, the Constitutional Court (TC) declared the ILE unconstitutional for fetal malformation. The measure had to be suspended due to the rejection that led to mass demonstrations that lasted for weeks in the streets of Warsaw, the Polish capital. At that time, an estimated 150,000 people - the largest demonstration since the movement for solidarity with workers in the 1980s took to the streets to oppose measures restricting the right to abortion.

The state wants to further limit rights, risk lives and condemn them to torture,said Adam Bodnar, a human rights defender in Poland after the almost total ban on the legal interruption of pregnancy (ILE). The ruling of the Constitutional Court eliminated the ILE in cases of fetal malformation, considered one of the three exceptions that allows access to an abortion in the country. According to data from the Ministry of Health, 98 percent of the 1,100 abortions performed in 2019 were due to fetal malformation.

Almost 90 years ago, Poland was the pioneer in legalizing abortion on the grounds of rape in Europe, with the promulgation of the ruling it became one of the laws that most restricts the right to decide. According to official data from the country , about two thousand legal abortions are performed annually, however, this figure contrasts that provided by feminist organizations, who estimate that the figure is one hundred times higher close to 200 thousand if those carried out in a manner were counted clandestine or abroad.