poland is seeing its biggest protests in
decades with widespread fury at a
decision to almost
totally ban abortions the country
already has some of the strictest
abortion laws in europe but the ban
would prevent even women whose fetuses
have severe malformations
from being able to terminate their
pregnancies the protests have delayed
the law's implementation but hospitals
across poland have already stopped the
procedure
our europe correspondent gene mckenzie
sent this report
weeks of rage pouring through the
streets of warsaw
women fighting to protect what little
right to abortion they have
against a government that's trying to
take it away
it's the progress of young people
they'll have to sing they love to dance
but authorities have had enough now
police are brought in from across the
country to break this up
there are just such a surprising number
of police here this evening and it just
feels so disproportionate to the number
of protesters
yeah it was difficult because we've been
blocked several times
and split in different groups but
finally we managed to
group everybody the protests erupted
after poland's top court announced a ban
on abortions where the fetus is severely
malformed
virtually the only terminations allowed
here shocked by the backlash
the government hasn't enforced the
ruling yet leaving women
in limbo but dr pozinska
is one of the few doctors still
performing terminations
many hospitals have already stopped for
fear of breaking the law
are you afraid
actually i am not i i don't know why but
but yeah
i am not afraid i mean i feel
deeply inside that i am doing right
thing so i hope that
the karma will save me and i will
i won't go to jail she introduces us to
her patient who was admitted in the
morning
21 weeks pregnant her fetus is missing
vital organs
and won't survive but she's been refused
to termination
three times
poland is strongly catholic and the
conservative government often portrays
abortion as an attack on the country's
faith
but even so this new ban has very little
support
have you picked the wrong fight no
definitely not this is a this is a good
fight because we want to
we want human life to be protected and
so we
are very open about this i am sorry if
that
if anyone is offended by it but actually
we will not be apologizing for it
back at the march the mood suddenly
changes police close in
a pensioner is dragged from the streets
others are beaten
and pepper sprayed clementina is one of
them
why are the authorities reacting so
strongly to your protests
because they are scared they fear they
are losing the power
are you going to win this fight we are
winning
it doesn't look like but we are ban
could be implemented any day but
protesters know
this is a bigger battle over which
direction the country takes
gene mckenzie bbc news warsaw