Near-total abortion ban takes effect in Poland, and thousands protest
A contentious near-total ban on abortion in Poland went into effect late Wednesday, despite rampant opposition from hundreds of thousands of Poles who began protesting in the fall in the largest demonstrations in the country since the 1989 collapse of communism.
Thousands of outraged women, teenagers and allies returned to the streets Wednesday night bundled up against the cold after word that a ruling that halts the termination of abortions for fetal abnormalities — virtually the only kind of abortion performed in Poland — would come into force.
The decision had been made in October by the Constitutional Tribunal, but its implementation was delayed after it prompted a month of protests.
On Wednesday the government abruptly announced that the ruling was being published in the government’s journal, meaning it came into effect.
At: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/27/world/europe/poland-abortion-law.html
Abortion rights supporters protest against a ruling that imposed a near-total ban on abortion in Warsaw, Poland.
The hard-right Andrzej Duda administration put the controversial October high court ruling into force today by decree.
The signs refer to hard-line Deputy Prime Minister Jarosław Kaczyński, calling on him to "play Sims, if you like deciding on people's lives."
