Campaigners stage protests across Poland in call for near-ban on abortion

Abortion laws in the country are already heavily restricted to cases of rape, incest and serious health risks

A demonstrator holds hangers, symbolizing illegal abortion, as she protests with other demonstrators against a possible tightening of the Poland's abortion law. (JANEK SKARZYNSKI/AFP/Getty Images)

Anti-abortion protesters have staged marches across Poland calling for the country’s already strict laws to be tightened to a near-ban on terminating pregnancies.

“Today we are calling on our state authorities to guarantee full legal protection of unborn children,” Pawel Kwasniak, head of Warsaw-based anti-abortion NGO in charge of the protests, said during a rally, AFP reported.

Mr Kwasniak addressed a crowd of nearly 1,000 protesters in the country’s capital on Sunday, who joined similar demonstrations held in 140 towns across Poland, organisers told the news agency.

Poland’s Prime Minister Beata Szydlo revealed last month that she openly supported a complete ban on abortions, which led to mass protests outside of the government building in Warsaw.

The country has some of the strictest abortion laws in the EU, with terminations only allowed in cases of rape or incest, if the child would have been born with severe health issues, or if the pregnancy poses a serious health risk to the mother.

But campaigners, who are backed by the country’s Catholic church, want a near-complete ban on abortion, allowing terminations only where it will save a woman’s life.

They are also calling for the law to be harsher on people who perform illegal abortions and for the maximum punishment to be increased from two years to five.

Protest rallies were also held across Poland in opposition to the call for stricter laws on abortion, according to the IB Times.