March held in Inverness to back strikes against new abortion rules in Poland
A PEACEFUL demonstration marched in Inverness city centre last Sunday to protest against the enforcement of stricter abortion laws in Poland.
About 40 people attended the event, which was organised by members of the Inverness Polish community Monika Prochnik and Kasia Kujawa.
The ruling by the Polish Constitutional Court, which was emitted on Thursday last week, will make abortion unconstitutional in cases involving foetal defects, making it legal only in cases of rape, incest or where the life of the mother is at risk.
Ms Kujawa said: “I am normally not an activist, but this time I felt it was our duty to show our support to the women in Poland in this dreadful hour. We want to defend the right of choice and the access to safe and legal abortion.
“This law means that pregnancies involving a risk of irreversible defects will be forced to carry to term resulting in the death of the baby. This is inhumane and an attack to women’s rights. What this far right government is doing is frightening and very dangerous.
“The response in Scotland has been amazing. It started as just one strike in Edinburgh and shortly after many more were organised across the country in Glasgow, Aberdeen and even Oban. We are a small community but if more people get to know about this in every corner of the world, maybe something will change.”
“Me and Monika would really like to thank Police Scotland and every person who supported us."
Behind the protests which are being organised across the world is also the Polish organisation Strajk Kobiet (Women's Strike).
The march in Inverness was the second in the city after a first event was organised on October 28th.
Gosia Pattison (36), who was among the protestors, said: “What we wanted was to show our support to the women in Poland and let them know that we are thinking of them.
“I am a mother myself, and I went through a very difficult pregnancy, where abortion was also considered as an option. I finally carried the baby to term, but I know how painful it can be for the women who find themselves in this very hard position and how painful it is for a woman to have to go through pregnancy knowing that their baby will not survive.
“Personally, I don’t agree with abortion being used just to avoid an undesired pregnancy, but I think that every woman should have a choice.
“We also had several men at the march and I think this is really important, as this matter affects them too as they are part of the family.
“We have many young people in our community and many support the cause of our protest. It was a shame that the weather was bad, I think we could have had better numbers otherwise.”