POWER TO THE PEOPLE

Poland Holds Off on Controversial Abortion Law Amid Record-Breaking Protests

The court ruling was supposed to be implemented Monday but has yet to be published.

The Polish government has put off implementing the anti-abortion court ruling that’s sparked the largest protests in the country since the end of communism in 1989, according to The Guardian. Poland’s constitutional tribunal vowed to tighten abortion laws in the country, which already has some of the harshest restrictions in all of Europe. The high court ruling was supposed to be implemented on Monday but has yet to be published. Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki has asked to speak with opposing MPs and protesters, while President Andrzej Duda instead suggested a new proposal that would make abortion legal for fetuses with life-threatening congenital defects, but not for conditions such as Down’s syndrome. “There is a discussion going on, and it would be good to take some time for dialogue and for finding a new position in this situation, which is difficult and stirs high emotions,” the head of the Polish prime minister’s office Michał Dworczyk said.