Thousands protest across Poland for free and legal abortion access

Thousands of people demonstrated in more than 20 towns and cities across Poland, calling for access to free and legal abortion services on the sixth anniversary of the near-total ban imposed by the country's highest court.

In Warsaw, about 1,000 protesters gathered in front of parliament despite rain. Organisers timed the rallies to the six years that have passed since the court ruling sharply restricted legal terminations in the country.

What the law allows

Abortion in Poland is legal only when a pregnancy results from a criminal act such as rape or incest, or when it threatens the life or health of the mother. Restrictive laws have been in force since 1993, and in 2016 women wore black at nationwide demonstrations to oppose them. Rather than being relaxed, the law was tightened in 2020 under the national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) government, which banned abortions of foetuses with congenital defects.

Bills face a likely veto

The protests came days after parliament passed two bills that would ease abortion restrictions in the mostly Catholic country. Prime Minister Donald Tusk's government promised to liberalise the law before its 2023 election victory, but divisions within the coalition have slowed progress, and the drafts are likely to be vetoed by conservative President Karol Nawrocki.

Zofia Marcinek of the Abortion Dream Team, a reproductive rights activist group in Warsaw, said passing the bills a year before the next parliamentary election amounted to "token gestures" rather than a genuine effort at reform. She argued the liberal government knew the drafts stood no chance of surviving a veto and was trying to create the impression of action because it needs women's support to win next year's election.

Abortions continue outside hospitals

Emilia Niemiec, 36, who manages the AboTak abortion centre, said little had really changed over six years. The centre provides women with access to resources including pills and a space to seek support or carry out a pharmacological abortion.

Despite the ban, abortions remain common, with the overwhelming majority carried out by women at home using pills obtained from outside Poland. Women who undergo abortions, including by taking pills, do not face criminal responsibility under Polish law, but people helping them, including doctors and family, can potentially be prosecuted.

Polish hospitals performed 573 abortions in the first half of 2026, compared with 452 in the whole of 2022 before Tusk came to power, according to National Health Fund data. Activists say tens of thousands of abortions happen outside hospitals each year.

Campaigners behind the protests claim the Tusk government has betrayed Polish women, and that its statements about improved access have complicated care for some. Marcinek said the government's promises "act as a type of disinformation", describing women who hear that everything is fine, find at the hospital that it is not, and approach activists only when help is late, complicated and expensive.

Source: Al Jazeera.