Recent days have seen Poland’s biggest social movement in decades, as hundreds of thousands protest a court ruling that imposes a near-total ban on abortion. Since the 1990s, Poland has been one of the European countries with the strictest anti-abortion measures; on October 22, the Constitutional Court tightened this regime yet further, as it ruled that severe fetal abnormalities were no longer grounds for seeking a termination.

Reproductive rights have been a key political battleground in Poland in recent years. Already back in 2016, the hard-right Law and Justice (PiS) government tried to pass a bill further restricting abortion, only to retreat in the face of the so-called “Black Protests.” The days following this latest ruling have seen an even more powerful wave of demonstrations, including strikes at workplaces up and down the country.

Agnieszka Dziemianowicz-Bąk is a feminist activist prominent in 2016’s “Black Protests” as well as the current movement. Since the October 2019 election, she has also been a member of the Sejm (parliament) as part of the left-wing coalition Lewica. She spoke to Jacobin’s David Broder about the offensive against reproductive rights, Poles’ frustrations with the PiS government, and what the protest movement has already achieved.