By Krzysztof Bastian

WARSAW – Employees in many Polish cities decided to follow the call of a women’s rights organization and refrain from going to work on Wednesday (28) to protest a top court ruling that effectively bans abortions.

Local media reported on employees – both women and men – at public institutions, universities and private firms, taking a day off work to show solidarity with the protesters.

Hanna Zdanowska, mayor of Lodz, Poland’s third-largest city, posted a photo of her empty chair on social media, with the caption “Out of the office.” Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski also voiced his support for the protest.

Last Thursday (22), Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal ruled that it is illegal under the constitution to perform abortions due to irreversible congenital defects of the foetus.

The now-voided regulation, which covered a wide range of conditions from Down’s syndrome to universally fatal defects, violated the right to life guaranteed in the constitution, the court decided, based on a complaint brought by conservative lawmakers.

Since almost all legal abortions in Poland last year were performed due to such foetal defects, the court’s decision brings Poland close to a blanket ban on terminations.

Abortion will be legal only if the pregnancy poses a threat to the life or health of the mother or when it is the result of a prohibited act such as rape or incest.

The court’s decisions led to massive street protests in numerous Polish cities, with the ire directed at Poland’s governing party Law and Justice (PiS) and it leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski, as many outside PiS see the Constitutional Tribunal as a politicized body under the governing party’s influence.

Some of the ire was also directed at the Catholic Church, whose top representatives in Poland welcomed the court’s ruling.

On Sunday, protesters disrupted Masses and spray-painted protest slogans on churches, which met with a vehement response of Poland’s governing majority.

In an address on Tuesday (27) night, Kaczynski said the protesters were trying to “destroy Poland… and end the Polish nation as we know it.” He called upon PiS supporters to “defend the churches at any cost.”

Interior Minister Mariusz Kaminski vowed “decisive action” against those who attempt similar acts of “aggression and desecration.”

In his speech, Kaczynski also said that the protesters, through defying Poland’s anti-coronavirus ban on gatherings larger than five people, are “committing a serious crime.”

On Wednesday, Poland reported over 18,800 new cases of the coronavirus, the highest number since the beginning of the pandemic.

With social tensions growing along with the number of coronavirus cases, the threats to citizens’ rights are ballooning too, Poland’s Human Rights Ombudsman Adam Bodnar said in an interview on Wednesday.

“It seems to me that the government may be inching closer towards [introducing] a state of emergency, i.e. to use this situation to… significantly reduce our rights and citizens’ freedoms,” Bodnar told bezprawnik.pl news site.

These limitations on citizens’ freedom could take the form of a curfew, curbs on the right to assemble or even imposing restrictions on the media, Bodnar said.

Demonstrations against the Constitutional Tribunal’s ruling were already taking place on Wednesday in some cities and further planned for Wednesday evening, the seventh consecutive day of protests.

The protests brought together people with very different views on abortion – from women’s rights organizations that demand abortion on demand until the 12th week of pregnancy to Catholics who oppose abortion, but do not want to take away the right to terminate a pregnancy in case of a fatal foetal defect.

-dpa