⁍ Protesters planning to converge on Warsaw from across Poland on Friday.
⁍ Police said would likely be the biggest demonstrations yet against a court ruling that amounted to a near-total ban on abortion.
⁍ Activists have mounted daily rallies, marching through cities and disrupting church services since last week’s Constitutional Court decision.
⁍ PM Mateusz Morawiecki said this week the mass gatherings could cause more coronavirus infections.
– A near-total ban on abortion is set to take effect in Poland on Thursday, with women only able to terminate a pregnancy in the case of rape, incest, or a threat to the woman’s health, reports Reuters. That means women in the predominantly Catholic country will now have to wait until the 10th week of pregnancy to have the procedure, reports the AP. Tens of thousands of protesters have been taking to the streets in cities across the country since last week’s ruling by the country’s Constitutional Court. “We expect these to be the biggest protests since the verdict,” a Warsaw police spokesman tells Reuters. “Considering how big they can be, we always use the support of the police from other garrisons.” Poland’s prime minister warned this week that mass protests could cause more infections of coronavirus, and authorities are planning to prosecute protest organizers on public health grounds.
Source: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-poland-abortion/activists-converge-on-warsaw-for-biggest-protests-against-abortion-ruling-idUSKBN27F13O