Christian Wenande
March 22nd, 2018

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Black Friday demo – tomorrow at 16:00 (photo: BLACK FRIDAY, solidarity with Polish women!)

Tomorrow at 16:00 scores of people will congregate at City Hall Square to peacefully protest Poland’s recent crackdown on abortion.

Named ‘Black Friday, solidarity with Polish women!’, the demonstration protests the contentious ‘Stop Abortion’ bill, that was proposed by conservative groups in collaboration with the Polish catholic church.

“Despite strong opposition from Amnesty international, women’s rights organisations and public opinion in Poland ‘Stop Abortion’ has been ‘debated’ by a special commission and with a majority vote, has been passed for a parliamentary vote on 23/3!” the organisers wrote on Facebook.

“Please come on Friday and help us raise awareness and support women in Poland… Nothing about us without us!”

Poland has some of the most restrictive abortions laws in Europe, with terminations permitted only when:

– A woman’s life or health is endangered by the continuation of pregnancy,
– Pregnancy is a result of a criminal act
– The fetus is seriously malformed

READ MORE: Poland’s under-fire president coming to Denmark

Under siege
But the new bill proposes to take it even further by outlawing abortions carried out because of congenital disorder of the fetus (estimated to be about 95 percent of legal abortions in Poland).

Poland is one of the few countries in the world to outlaw abortion after decades of complete legalisation and as a result Polish women often seek abortion in neighboring countries due to the strict restraints in their own country, or are forced to go to less-safe underground abortion clinics.

It is also considered a crime to persuade a woman to carry out an illegal termination.

As of now, about 80 people have signed up to attend the demonstration in Copenhagen tomorrow, while a further around 250 indicated that they are interested in attending.