Despite Massive Protests, Poland’s Near-Total Abortion Ban Goes Into Effect

After a months-long delay, Poland’s right-wing government announced that new rules restricting abortion rights would go into effect.

It led to more protests in the streets, similar to when a high court first announced the move back in October.

Some background: Abortion was already illegal in the nation, with exceptions for cases of rape or if the woman’s life was in danger. Last year, however, the nation’s constitutional tribunal ruled that the procedure would also be illegal in the case of fetal abnormalities — those cases accounted for 1,074 out of 1,100 abortions last year. So the ruling effectively banned the procedure for everyone.

Any woman who needs or wants to obtain an abortion now either has to do it secretly, under threat of arrest, or travel to another country.

The nation outcry led to a delay in the implementation of the ruling, but Wednesday night, it was announced that the rule would now be enforced.

Even without the ruling in force, some hospitals had pre-emptively instructed doctors to stop performing abortions for fetal abnormalities, fearing the legal ramifications for their doctors, according to local media.

European lawmakers, who have accused the government of influencing the court’s decision, also criticized the announcement.

All of this is the result of the right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) party, led by Jarosław Kaczyński and in coordination with President Andrzej Duda. That’s because, even though they haven’t been able to pass anti-abortion measures legislatively, they were able to pack the court in question: 14 of the 15 judges were appointed by the party.

These radical religious conservatives are so “pro-life,” they’ll do anything for a fetus while neglecting to take care of those already living. They would rather see women suffer than provide the resources to give that mother a better quality of life.

(Image via Shutterstock. Portions of this article were published earlier)