Thousands of people protested in Warsaw and other cities across Poland on Friday against the conservative government's latest attempt to restrict abortion.

Many also voiced broad anger at the ruling Law and Justice party, which has been accused by domestic critics and international bodies of eroding democracy and civic freedoms.

"This is against attempts at taking away our right to decide what we want," said Paulina Rudnik, a 44-year-old lawyer at the Warsaw protest.

In the crowds around her, people held banners reading "Free choice" and "A woman is a human being" and chanted slogans "Yes to choice! No to horror!"

Poland has one of the strictest abortion laws in Europe, allowing abortion only if the woman's life or health is at risk, the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest, or the fetus is damaged.

An attempt by Polish officials to ban all abortions in 2016 sparked mass nationwide protests by women dressed in black that forced the government to abandon the plan.

The new proposed legislation would still allow abortions when the woman's life or health is at risk or the pregnancy results from a crime. But it would ban abortions of irreparably damaged fetuses or those with Down syndrome.

In Warsaw, protesters gathered at the seat of the influential Roman Catholic bishops, who are pressing the government to tighten the abortion law.

Beating drums and blowing horns, they marched to parliament and then to the headquarters of the ruling right-wing party.

"I hope this protest has the same effect as the one in 2016. Forcing women to have babies is inhuman," said Karolina Chelminska, a 26-year-old graphic designer.

In other protests, thousands gathered in Krakow's market, and hundreds in some other cities, including Wroclaw, where some signs read "I will not give birth to a dead baby."

The European Union's Commissioner for Human Rights, Nils Muiznieks, and U.N. experts are urging Poland's parliament to reject the abortion bill, saying it puts Poland in conflict with its international human rights obligations. </s> WARSAW, Poland — Crowds are gathering in Warsaw for a women’s protest against plans backed by the conservative government to further tighten Poland’s strict anti-abortion law.

The proposed legislation is being debated by commissions in parliament. It was proposed by a civic group and would ban abortions of irreparably sick or impaired fetuses and those with Down syndrome. Abortion would still be allowed if the woman’s life or health is threatened or the pregnancy results from rape or incest.

Poland’s women’s organizations have called protests Friday in front of parliament, the ruling party’s headquarters and the seat of Roman Catholic bishops, who are urging adoption of the law.

The European Union’s Commissioner for Human Rights, Nils Muiznieks, and U.N. experts are urging the parliament to reject the bill.

Massive protests in 2016 made the government give up plans to ban all abortion. </s> Protests erupt in Poland over plan to tighten abortion law

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Thousands of people protested in Warsaw and other cities across Poland on Friday against the conservative government's latest attempt to restrict abortion.

Many also voiced broad anger at the ruling Law and Justice party, which has been accused by domestic critics and international bodies of eroding democracy and civic freedoms.

"This is against attempts at taking away our right to decide what we want," said Paulina Rudnik, a 44-year-old lawyer at the Warsaw protest.

In the crowds around her, people held banners reading "Free choice" and "A woman is a human being" and chanted slogans "Yes to choice! No to horror!"

Poland has one of the strictest abortion laws in Europe, allowing abortion only if the woman's life or health is at risk, the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest, or the fetus is damaged.

An attempt by Polish officials to ban all abortions in 2016 sparked mass nationwide protests by women dressed in black that forced the government to abandon the plan.

The new proposed legislation would still allow abortions when the woman's life or health is at risk or the pregnancy results from a crime. But it would ban abortions of irreparably damaged fetuses or those with Down syndrome.

In Warsaw, protesters gathered at the seat of the influential Roman Catholic bishops, who are pressing the government to tighten the abortion law.

Beating drums and blowing horns, they marched to parliament and then to the headquarters of the ruling right-wing party.

"I hope this protest has the same effect as the one in 2016. Forcing women to have babies is inhuman," said Karolina Chelminska, a 26-year-old graphic designer.

In other protests, thousands gathered in Krakow's market, and hundreds in some other cities, including Wroclaw, where some signs read "I will not give birth to a dead baby."

The European Union's Commissioner for Human Rights, Nils Muiznieks, and U.N. experts are urging Poland's parliament to reject the abortion bill, saying it puts Poland in conflict with its international human rights obligations. </s> WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Thousands of people protested in Warsaw and other cities across Poland on Friday against the conservative government's latest attempt to restrict abortion.

Many also voiced broad anger at the ruling Law and Justice party, which has been accused by domestic critics and international bodies of eroding democracy and civic freedoms.

"This is against attempts at taking away our right to decide what we want," said Paulina Rudnik, a 44-year-old lawyer at the Warsaw protest.

In the crowds around her, people held banners reading "Free choice" and "A woman is a human being" and chanted slogans "Yes to choice! No to horror!"

Poland has one of the strictest abortion laws in Europe, allowing abortion only if the woman's life or health is at risk, the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest, or the fetus is damaged.

An attempt by Polish officials to ban all abortions in 2016 sparked mass nationwide protests by women dressed in black that forced the government to abandon the plan.

The new proposed legislation would still allow abortions when the woman's life or health is at risk or the pregnancy results from a crime. But it would ban abortions of irreparably damaged fetuses or those with Down syndrome.

In Warsaw, protesters gathered at the seat of the influential Roman Catholic bishops, who are pressing the government to tighten the abortion law.

Beating drums and blowing horns, they marched to parliament and then to the headquarters of the ruling right-wing party.

"I hope this protest has the same effect as the one in 2016. Forcing women to have babies is inhuman," said Karolina Chelminska, a 26-year-old graphic designer.

In other protests, thousands gathered in Krakow's market, and hundreds in some other cities, including Wroclaw, where some signs read "I will not give birth to a dead baby."

The European Union's Commissioner for Human Rights, Nils Muiznieks, and U.N. experts are urging Poland's parliament to reject the abortion bill, saying it puts Poland in conflict with its international human rights obligations.

Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. </s> WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Women across Poland are protesting in front of bishops' residences after the influential Roman Catholic Church urged the government to ban abortion.

In Warsaw, 400 protesters gathered Sunday before the archbishop's seat with wire clothes hangers, a symbol of illegal abortions. They chanted "Nothing about us without us!" and "Save the women!"

They were reacting to the Episcopate's statement last week that urged Polish lawmakers to totally ban abortion.

Poland's conservative government supports further tightening the country's strict anti-abortion law and banning abortions of sick or deformed fetuses. Such proposal by an anti-abortion group is to be debated by a parliament commission this week.

Poland allows abortion if the woman's life or health is threatened, the pregnancy results from rape or incest or the fetus is incurably sick or damaged. </s> Clutching wire hangers and waving black flags, tens of thousands of Poles took to their cities’ streets on Friday to protest against renewed efforts to tighten already restrictive abortion laws.

On a square in the western city of Poznan, women young and old chanted “Solidarity!” and howled with anger over an issue they considered resolved – but now see under attack from the national conservative government.

“I don’t know what we can do to stop this but at least it’s good to feel the energy and anger,” said Malgorzata (33) holding a sign reading “Rebel Girl is Always Free”.

Fellow protester Magdalena, who is also 33, said: “This government has polarised Poland like never before, but at least people are waking up.”

For the second time in two years, the ruling national conservative government is moving to tighten laws that allow abortions here only in cases of incest, rape and nonviable foetuses, or when the mother’s life is threatened.

The Polish government abandoned its first attempt to restrict abortion in 2016 after massive national protests. Now a “Stop Abortion” citizens’ initiative, calling for an end to “eugenic” abortions, has filed a Bill with parliament banning all abortions on genetic grounds, including Down Syndrome. It would also oblige women to carry to term a baby unlikely to survive after birth.

The initiative has passed the Polish parliament’s human rights committee but a plan for a second committee vote this week were postponed. Protests across Poland went ahead anyway on Friday for fear the government will rush through a parliamentary vote before opponents call another demonstration.

In parallel to their parliamentary push, the “Stop Abortion” citizens’ initiative has asked Poland’s constitutional tribunal to rule on whether abortion “on genetic grounds” is in keeping with the constitution.

Article 38 of the Polish constitution guarantees “the legal protection of life of every human being”.

Pro-choice campaigners fear the constitutional tribunal, now under control of the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party, will follow Ireland’s example from 1983 to restrict abortion laws still further. Such a ruling by Poland’s highest court would be difficult for future parliaments to reverse.

More than 200 human rights and women’s groups, from Ireland to New Zealand, have signed a petition expressing concern at “relentless attempts to roll back the reproductive rights of women in Poland”.

The new draft Bill, the petition warns, “will place women’s health and lives at risk and violate Poland’s international human rights obligations”.

Restricting abortion was a key policy in the Law and Justice party’s 2015 general election success. Delivering on that promise before this year’s local elections would, political observers say, ensure political backing of Polish bishops from the pulpits.

Ahead of “right to life” ceremonies in Catholic churches this weekend, Poznan archbishop Stanislaw Gadecki said “every child has a right to be born and live, from the the moment of conception, independent of whether an illness or genetic defect is diagnosed”.

But the united push by PiS and church leaders to restrict abortion has infuriated pro-choice Polish women who have difficulty finding doctors prepared to carry out the legal procedure.

Watching the Poznan protest was mayor Jacek Jaskowiak of the liberal Civic Platform party, ousted from national government in Warsaw in 2015. He is positioning Poznan as the capital of progressive Poland and plans to open a clinic where gynaecologists will offer women round-the-clock advice, prescriptions and treatment.

“I am trying to keep a kind of normality here, including for our women, although in the last two years I see this government undermining our rights, step by step,” he said. “I don’t think the alliance in Poland between church and the ruling party is a good thing.”

Officially up to 1,800 legal abortions are performed in Poland annually. When backstreet and foreign terminations are included, however, women’s groups say the true figure may be as high as 150,000.

At the biggest march on Friday in Warsaw, organisers called for solidarity with Polish women – and with pro-choice campaigners in Ireland.

“I hope Irish women succeed in May but unfortunately for us, Poland is moving in the wrong direction,” said Wanda Nowicka, a leading Polish women’s rights campaigner and co-organiser of Friday’s marches. </s> Thousands of Poles have gathered outside parliament in Warsaw to condemn political interference in the courts.

They are protesting at a bill to give MPs and the justice minister the power to appoint judges without consulting judicial circles. </s> DUBLIN (Reuters) – Tens of thousands of people marched in Dublin on Saturday to demand the loosening of some of the strictest abortion laws in the world ahead of a 2018 referendum on the issue. </s> WARSAW, Poland — Thousands of Warsaw residents joined in a spontaneous protest in front of Poland's parliament against a plan by the conservative ruling party to limit reporters' access to legislators.

Mobilized by the civic movement, the Committee for the Defense of Democracy, or KOD, the crowd on Friday waved white-and-red national flags and chanted "Free media!" in cold winter weather.

Radek Sikorski, a former foreign minister, was among the government critics who addressed the protest, harshly denouncing Poland's political direction under Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the powerful chairman of the ruling Law and Justice party that is introducing many sweeping changes.

Earlier Friday, inside the parliament's session hall, a large group of liberal opposition lawmakers protested the new media rules by standing on and around the speaker's podium for several hours. They blocked a vote on the 2017 state budget.

The budget vote was eventually taken by the ruling party's lawmakers in another hall, but the opposition questioned its legality. It was the most serious crisis in Poland's parliament in many years.

"The political crisis has grown more aggravated," Law and Justice lawmaker Tadeusz Cymanski said.

The crowd blocked lawmakers' cars, preventing them from leaving the parliament area. After a few hours, police had to make way for them, as the crowd chanted "We will win!" A new protest was called for Saturday noon in front of the Presidential Palace.

At the heart of the issue was free access to information.

In the 27 years of Poland's democracy, journalists have been a constant presence in the parliament's halls. Banned from the main assembly room, they can grab politicians for interviews in the halls.

The ruling party, which is under European Union scrutiny for policies deemed anti-democratic by opponents, plans new rules starting Jan. 1 that would drastically limit reporters' access in parliament.

Ruling party leader Kaczynski denounced the obstruction of parliament as "hooliganism" and threatened protesters with consequences.

"We will not allow ourselves to be terrorized," he said.

He said the proposed changes to media access are no different from those in many other European nations. Respected journalist Seweryn Blumsztajn, a dissident under communism, called the plan a "return to communist-era practices."

Monika Olejnik of TVN acknowledged that journalists have gone too far sometimes, such as trying to accost politicians heading to the toilet. But she, too, denounced the planned new rules, saying ruling party lawmakers want "to protect themselves from uncomfortable questions by journalists."

"But this is in violation of the constitution and of parliament rules," Olejnik said.
Thousands protest across Poland against the government's proposed restrictions on abortion.