The Polish government has effectively 'delegalized' any kind of abortion.
Clashes between hundreds of protesters and the police turned violent in Poland's capital city of Warsaw after Constitutional Court has struck down a provision of the Catholic country's abortion law, allowing the already strict legislation to be further tightened and drawing swift outcry from rights groups.
Since 1993, Poland has only allowed abortions if the pregnancy is a result of rape or incest, if it poses a threat to the mother's life or if the foetus is deformed.
The government-controlled constitutional court said terminating pregnancies because of fetal defects was unconstitutional. The court’s decision means banning the most common reason for ending a pregnancy in the largely Catholic country, and it pushes Poland further away from the European mainstream, as the only EU country apart from tiny Malta to severely restrict access to abortion.
Isolated scuffles with the police broke out, and officers used tear gas to disperse the crowd.
