Abortion ban proponents: Abortion ban opponents: National International European National European Over 200 injured Over 1,000 injured The 2020–2021 women's strike protests in Poland, commonly called the Women's Strike (Polish: Strajk Kobiet), were anti-government demonstrations and protests in Poland that began on 22 October 2020, in reaction to a ruling of the Constitutional Tribunal, mainly consisting of judges who were appointed by the ruling Law and Justice (Polish: Prawo i Sprawiedliwość, PiS) dominated United Right, which tightened the law on abortion in Poland.

[43] On 7 January 1993, the Polish parliament[44] passed the Law on Family Planning[38] forbidding abortion, except if (1) the pregnancy poses a risk to the mother's life, (2) it is the result of a crime, or (3) there is a foetal impairment.

[48] Because the Lower House elects constitutional judges, since the United Right took power in Poland in 2015, PiS' domination has expanded onto the judicial branch.

[50] During the year, the Constitutional Tribunal heard or received arguments and legal interventions on the question, one of which the European branch of the American Center for Law and Justice planned to submit.

[52] In an 11–2 decision announced on 22 October 2020 and published on the next day, the Constitutional Tribunal ruled unconstitutional[53][54] the provision of the 1993 Act permitting abortion when the fetus is predicted to have a "disability or incurable illness".

[53] The ruling did not affect the other two cases of the existing law, meaning that pregnancy can still be terminated if (1) it is the result of a crime (rape or incest), or (2) the woman's life or health is at risk.

They held banners, throwing leaflets with postulates and women's strike symbols,[57] disrupting Sunday Mass in several cities, including Katowice and Poznań,[58] and churches across the country were vandalized.

[60][61] On 27 October 2020, the Women's Strike presented a list of demands: (1) fix the situations of the Constitutional Tribunal, the Supreme Court and the Ombudsman, (2) amend the budget – with more funds for health protection and assistance for entrepreneurs – (3) enact full women's rights – legal abortion, sex education, contraception – (4) stop the financing of the Catholic Church from the state budget, (5) end religious instruction in schools, and (6) enact the resignation of the government.

Besides universities, local media including Gazeta.pl,[27] Gazeta Wyborcza,[28] NaTemat.pl,[29] and Newsweek Polska[30] engaged in the protest by publishing editorials supporting the movement.

[74] On 3 November 2020, further demonstrations took place, some in reference to the announcement by the Minister of Education and Science, Przemysław Czarnek, concerning the consequences for teachers who were to encourage their students to participate in the protests.

[75] In Warsaw, the police intervened against two artists who undressed in front of the Presidential Palace as a form of support for the protesting women.

[77] On 8 November 2020, the 15-metre-high steel Christian cross on the Great Giewont peak in the Tatra Mountains was briefly covered by a banner showing the OSK red lightning symbol and the text "Domestic violence is not a tradition."

In mid-2020, the cross had previously been used to display an election poster for Andrzej Duda and a rainbow flag representing LGBT rights.

[81] Member of Sejm Marcelina Zawisza unsuccessfully tried to persuade police to allow a mother with her child, passers-by, trapped in the cordon by chance, to leave safely.

[81] On 19 November 2020, a solidarity demonstration for a 25-year-old woman, Iza, detained during the protests in late October, started at 11:00 in front of the Warsaw Regional Court [pl].

Members of Sejm Klaudia Jachira Monika Falej, present at the events, accused the police of escalating the conflict.

[83] On 23 November 2020, protests took place in Warsaw and around Poland, in Biały Dunajec, Bydgoszcz, Gdańsk, Gdynia, Lublin, Nowy Dwór Gdański, Podhale, Toruń, Wejherowo and Wrocław.

[86] On 13 December, protesters, including members of Sejm, marched in Warsaw from Roman Dmowski Roundabout [pl] at around midday and arriving at Kaczyński's house in Żoliborz at around 14:20 CET.

[87] Street protests restarted on the evening of 27 January 2021, hours after the Constitutional Tribunal ruling was formally published in Dziennik Ustaw.

[90] Further demands included full women's rights, legal abortion, sex education, and contraception; interpreting the Constitutional Tribunal's ruling as stated by the president of the tribunal Julia Przyłębska, as her personal testimony instead of a legal ruling; "the return of a real (independent) Constitutional Tribunal"; "the return to a neutral (independent) Supreme Court of Poland that is not controlled by PiS"; "the appointment of a real (independent) Polish Ombudsman, to succeed Adam Bodnar, who reached the end of his term"; and the overthrow of the rule of the Law and Justice party.

[90] On 1 November 2020, the All-Poland Women's Strike created the Consultative Council, to develop strategies to implement the aims of the protesters.

"[93][94] Demonstrations against the ruling and in support of the protests were organised in Amsterdam, Athens, Belgrade, Berlin, Bochum, Bristol, Brussels, Budapest, Chicago, Dublin, Edinburgh, Glasgow (in Scotland there were 14 solidarity demonstrations in total), Göteborg, Hamburg, Helsinki, Kyiv, Leeds, Leipzig, Lisbon, London, Luxembourg, Malmö, Manchester, Mexico City, Munich, Nicosia, Nottingham, Paris, Porto, Prague, Reykjavík, Sheffield, Sydney, Stockholm, Tartu, Tel Aviv, Tokyo, Vienna, and others.

[98] On 11 November 2020, Klementyna Suchanow of OSK stated that the government had failed to increase the health budget to ten percent of the GDP within the Consultative Council's one-week deadline.

To obtain the increase in the health budget to ten percent, a general strike was under negotiation for early December with the medical community.

[101] Jarosław Kaczyński, who is considered Poland's de facto leader[102] (he previously held the posts of Prime Minister and president of PiS, then Deputy Prime Minister), issued on 27 October a statement in which he called for the "defence of the churches, Poland and patriotism", stated that "the authorities have the full right to oppose these protests" and called "all PiS members and our supporters" to "defend [the churches] at all costs" (Polish: Musimy ich bronić za każdą cenę).

[109] In October 2020 the coalition partner of PiS, the Agreement party, published a statement calling for introducing precise legal provisions concerning the protection of what they referred to as an "unborn child" with Down syndrome and the mother's right to make decisions in "very rare cases of incurable lethal defects" of the foetus.

[111] He explained that "after the enactment of this bill, there will still be three grounds for legal abortion in Polish law: [1] because of a threat to the life and health of the mother, [2] because of rape or incest and [3] because of severe and irreversible damage to the foetus which leads to the death of the child".

The Polish Ministry of Defence stated on Twitter that the Gendarmerie's policing role was "standard" and unrelated to the abortion rights protests.

[104] During the October protests, enquiries regarding the procedure for apostasy (deregistering from the Polish Catholic Church), which requires a personal visit to a parish priest increased in popularity.

Former Minister and member of parliament Bartłomiej Sienkiewicz attempted to defend some of the protesters; he was pepper-sprayed at a distance of about 1.5 metres in his face by one of the fighters.