Poland abortion law: Protesters take to streets again as near-total ban comes into force

Massive protests broke out in Polish cities shortly after the country's top court confirmed its highly divisive ruling that will further tighten the predominantly Catholic nation’s strict anti-abortion law.

Protesters in the capital Warsaw lit red flares, waved rainbow flags associated with LGBT community and brandished placards reading "This Means War" and "Free Choice, Not Terror".

Many also held up the red lightning symbol used by pro-choice activists as they brought traffic to a halt.

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The ruling is supported by Poland's right-wing and ultra-Catholic government, which said it was giving it legal force by publishing it in the Journal of Laws in order to respect its constitutional obligations.

The government said that step opens the way for the verdict to be officially published. That means abortions will only be permitted in cases of rape, incest and when a mother's life is endangered.

Predominantly Catholic Poland already has one of Europe's most restrictive laws on abortion.

There are fewer than 2,000 legal abortions every year and women's groups estimate that an additional 200,000 women abort either illegally or abroad.

Borys Budka, head of the opposition Civic Platform, said the publication of the ruling was a "provocation".

Wanda Nowicka of the Left party tweeted: "You have not yet won this war against women and you will not win."

The government had delayed publishing the ruling after nationwide demonstrations held in defiance of coronavirus restrictions banning rallies.

The protests sparked by the abortion ruling, many of them led by teens, soon became an expression of wider anti-government sentiment.

The biggest protests brought together tens of thousands of people in what organisers said was a generational "revolution" against the status quo, including against Poland's Catholic hierarchy.

But polling experts say that a "silent majority" of Poles support the existing abortion legislation and only a small number want wider abortion rights.

The government has defended the verdict, saying it will halt "eugenic abortions", referring to the termination of foetuses diagnosed with Down's Syndrome, but human rights groups have said it will force women to carry non-viable pregnancies.

(With inputs from agencies)