Let no one ever tell you that protest and strike action doesn’t achieve anything. Poland‘s government is in freefall after enormous, countrywide protests against a proposed total abortion ban, with senior members of the ruling Law and Justice party abandoning the legislation and signalling they will not support a bill.
Quite possibly the coolest protest sign ever. Stand by #Poland‘s women in their fight against medieval abortion ban proposal #CzarnyProtest pic.twitter.com/XmaXp6lt3l
— Lydia Gall (@LydsG) October 4, 2016
The justice and human rights committee in Poland has recommended that the law, which would have completely banned abortion even in cases of rape and incest, should be abandoned after many women in Poland refused to work in protest. As many as 30,000 protesters gathered in Warsaw‘s Castle Square alone.
Liberal MP and former prime minister Ewa Kopacz told reporters that the government had “backtracked because it was scared by all the women who hit the streets in protest”.
The so-called Black Monday protests apparently shifted public opinion so drastically that not only dos the overwhelming majority now oppose these laws, they also support liberalising the existing law. So that’s pretty wild.
It’s worth mentioning that the right-wing Law and Justice party did not actually propose the law initially – it was brought before the parliament by a citizen’s initiative via a petition that has received at least 100,000 signatures. That said, many senior members of the government – including the president and the prime minister – signalled support for the bill prior to the protests.
There ya go. Don’t stop fighting.
