2024-04-14 19:05 update: 2024-04-15, 15:00
Photo: PAP/Albert Zawada
A National March for Life went along the streets of central Warsaw on Sunday in a protest against what the participants see as attacks on marriage, family and "conceived children threatened with abortion."
"We cannot stand aside with our hands folded when our fundamental rights and values are being questioned," march organisers said.
The motto of this year's march, "Long live Poland," refers to the Day of the Christianization of Poland, observed on April 14.
"We want to manifest our fidelity to as well as our gratitude and responsibility for the Christian heritage of Poland, its present day and future," the organisers added.
The march, which moved off from the Zamkowy Square, headed along Trakt Krolewski (The Royal Route) onto the Trzech Krzyzy Square where a concert took place. The event ended with a mass at St Alexander Church.
The march is seen as a protest against a debate in parliament on liberalisation of abortion laws. The Sejm, the lower house of Poland's parliament, refused on Friday to reject on their first reading four bills aiming to ease the country's abortion laws.
"We will not raise the white flag, regardless of what happens in the Sejm," said Boguslaw Kiernicki, one of the organisers and leader of the Right of Poland party.
"We will hold our ground until the rights of conceived children are guaranteed," Kiernicki continued. "We will be here next year, and maybe in half a year, if need be, outside the Sejm."
After a severe tightening of the abortion laws under the previous socially-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) government in 2020, abortion is currently permitted in Poland only if the pregnancy is the result of rape, incest or if it threatens the health or life of the mother. Poland has one of the strictest abortion regulations in the EU. (PAP)
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