Poland Faces New Abortion Rights Protests

Thousands of people have protested in Warsaw and more than 20 other Polish cities, demanding abortion rights on the sixth anniversary of a near-total abortion ban imposed by the country’s highest court.

The demonstrations took place on Thursday, days after parliament passed two bills targeted at easing abortion restrictions. However, the bills are expected to face vetoes from conservative President Karol Nawrocki.

“These are breadcrumbs,” Kinga Jelinska, director of the Women Help Women Foundation and co-founder of the Abortion Dream Team, told AFP, describing the proposed changes.

In Warsaw, about 1,000 protesters gathered outside parliament despite the rain.

“Over the last six years, nothing has really changed,” said 36-year-old Milia Niemiec, who manages the Abotak abortion centre. The centre provides women with information, resources and support, including access to abortion pills.

Abortion is currently legal in Poland 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.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s government promised to liberalise abortion laws before winning the 2023 election. However, divisions within the governing coalition have slowed progress. Protest organisers, including several Polish activist and advocacy groups, called for wider access to abortion.

“We demand decriminalisation and access to abortion through the public healthcare system,” they wrote in an Instagram post.

One of the bills would partly decriminalise abortion and remove criminal penalties for assisting someone to end a pregnancy. Under current law, helping someone obtain an abortion can carry a prison sentence of up to three years.

The second bill seeks to reverse the effects of a 2020 ruling by Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal, which removed the right to abortion in cases of severe foetal abnormalities. Before the ruling, 98 per cent of legal abortions in Poland were performed on this ground.

Data from Poland’s National Health Fund show that public hospitals performed only 573 abortions in the first half of 2026. In 2025, public hospitals carried out 851 abortions for the entire year. The 2020 ruling triggered widespread protests across Poland. The demonstrations became the country’s largest since the anti-communist movement of 1989.

President Nawrocki, who was endorsed by the then-ruling Law and Justice party (PiS), is expected to veto both bills. The party has supported the restrictions introduced by the 2020 court ruling. His expected veto could further delay efforts to ease Poland’s abortion laws, despite renewed public demands for change.