Abortion ruling amounts to a ban – what’s going on in Poland?

Dr Sydney Calkin (PhD)
Protests in Poland. Source: AAP.

Enormous protests are taking place across Poland in response to a new ruling striking down part of the 1993 abortion law — something that effectively amounts to a legal ban in a country that already took a very restrictive approach to abortion.

Abortion was previously allowed on three grounds. The constitutional court has ruled that the provision allowing abortion in the case of severe fetal anomaly is unconstitutional and is therefore banned.