Poland's Top Court Rules Out Abortions Due To Fetal Defects
Source: PBS Newshour
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland’s top court ruled Thursday that a law allowing abortion of fetuses with congenital defects is unconstitutional, shutting a major loophole in the predominantly Catholic country’s abortion laws that are among the strictest in Europe.
Two judges in the 13-member Constitutional Court did not back the majority ruling. Activists deplored the decision, and the Council of Europe’s human rights commissioner wrote on Twitter that it was a “sad day for women’s rights.”
Hours later, hundreds of protesters defied a pandemic-related ban on gatherings and staged a protest before the court with signs saying “You Have Blood on Your Gowns” and then walked to the offices of the main ruling conservative party, Law and Justice. The police were checking their documents.
The ruling party will soon propose new legislation to better support women, the party’s spokeswoman said. The court’s decision came in response to a motion from right-wing lawmakers who argued that terminating a pregnancy due to fetal defects — the most common reason cited for legal abortions in Poland — violates a constitutional provision that calls for protecting the life of every individual.
Read more: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/polands-top-court-rules-out-abortions-due-to-fetal-defects
The law was introduced in 1993 by Poland’s young post-communist democracy, a hard-won compromise between the influential Catholic Church and the state authorities.
The law allowed abortions when a pregnancy endangers a woman’s health or life, or results from rape or other illegal act, and also in case of congenital defects. Only the last provision was challenged.
Many Polish women have sought abortions abroad, even before the new ruling.
- Protesters against imposing further restrictions on abortion law in Poland demonstrate in front of the Constitutional Court building in Warsaw, Poland Oct. 22, 2020.
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