⁍ A Polish abortion rights support group said it had seen a sharp rise in calls to its helpline since activists started spraying its number on buildings, statues and signs during more than a week of mass protests.

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⁍ Demonstrators were converging on Warsaw on Friday for their eighth straight day of rallies against a constitutional court ruling that amounted to a near-total ban on abortion.

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⁍ Some of the calls were from women seeking abortions who said they had been turned away by hospitals, even though the ruling is not yet enforceable.

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– Poland’s mass protests against a near-total ban on abortion have prompted a surge in calls to a support hotline, reports Reuters. “The number of our helpline has appeared on public television … on sidewalks, walls, even on churches,” says a member of the support group Abortions Without Borders. Some of the calls have come from women seeking abortions after being turned away by hospitals, even though the ruling is not yet enforceable. Meanwhile, a Catholic anti-abortion group is calling on doctors to treat the ruling as immediately enforceable. “We have to fully protect the rights of these unborn children, already now,” says a member of the group Ordo Iuris. A post on the government legislation website says the ruling should be published and therefore effectively enforceable by Nov. 2. Many of the callers were unsure whether the ruling had come into force or said they had already been turned away by hospitals, says the director of Poland’s Federation for Women and Family Planning. “A lot of hospitals are scared. They are worried the hospital will be held criminally responsible, that the ruling could be enforced the next day and that it will be binding as of midnight,” she adds.