Pro-abortion feminists in Poland are planning a national strike Wednesday to protest a new court ruling that protects unborn babies with disabilities from abortions.
The AP reports abortion activists have been rioting across Poland ever since the nation’s high court issued its ruling last Thursday. So far, authorities have arrested 76 people for disrupting church services and vandalizing church buildings in the midst of the unrest, according to the report.
Euro News reports Parliament leaders even had to call in guards Tuesday to protect Deputy Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski from angry pro-abortion lawmakers.
Kaczynski, a target because he is pro-life and a top political leader, criticized abortion activists for wanting “to destroy Poland,” according to the report. He also urged citizens to protect churches from the pro-abortion rioters.
Pro-abortion groups are asking women to skip work Wednesday and join their strike. Another protest also is planned for Warsaw on Friday, the reports continue.
Meanwhile, political and religious leaders are calling for peace and asking protesters to consider that human rights should be for all human beings.
The country’s top Catholic leader, Archbishop Wojciech Polak, encouraged Christians to promote peace, not conflict, in the midst of the unrest, according to Euro News.
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“It is a moral obligation of every Christian to take steps to de-escalate a conflict, not to intensify it,” Polak said.
Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki warned that abortion activists are risking lives by protesting in huge crowds during the coronavirus crisis, the BBC reports. He also defended the right to life as the most fundamental of all rights.
“The freedom of choice truly is a fundamental thing but we should all agree that in order to have this freedom of choice, one needs to be alive,” Morawiecki said. “The one who is dead cannot implement one’s right of freedom of choice.”
Poland is one of the few countries in Europe that protects unborn babies from abortions in almost all cases.
On Thursday, Poland’s constitutional court struck down one of the few exceptions allowed in its 1993 abortion law – abortions on unborn babies with disabilities. The justices ruled that the exception violates the constitution because it discriminates against human beings with disabilities.
Poland still allows abortions in cases of rape, incest or threats to the mother’s life.
Pro-life and political leaders celebrated the news as a huge victory for the rights of unborn babies.
“One cannot kill a child for being sick. This is not a fetus, it is a child,” MP Maria Kurowska, of United Poland, told Reuters.
Mikolaj Pawlak, the commissioner for child rights in Poland, also celebrated the ruling.
“The decision of the Constitutional Court declaring eugenic abortion incompatible with the constitution is a victory of life over death,” Pawlak said. “It is a restoration of equal rights for every human being, including those who have not yet been born.”
The ruling could save thousands of babies’ lives. Polish health officials reported 1,100 abortions in 2019, according to the report.
Protests began soon after the ruling was announced, and pro-abortion feminist groups said they are planning more protests for the coming weeks.
Last week, the BBC reported police arrested 15 pro-abortion protesters after they began throwing stones Thursday night in Warsaw. The report, along with others from NBC News and the AP, indicate several rioters also were arrested for trying to break through a police blockade outside the home of Deputy Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski, who is pro-life. Reports say police used pepper spray to quell the rioters.
Abortion activists also broke coronavirus restrictions in Warsaw. The city has a 10-person limit on gatherings, and city police said they fined 35 people for breaking the restriction, the Independent reports.
On Sunday, The Daily Mail reports pro-abortion rioters vandalized churches in several cities across the country. According to AFP, police also detained several pro-abortion protesters for trying to force their way into a church in Warsaw.
In the city of Poznan, dozens of pro-abortion protesters did break into a church and disrupt a service, shouting, “We’ve had enough!” and “Barbarians!” as they held signs up in front of the altar, the Mail reports.
