(8 Mar 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Warsaw, Poland – 8 March 2025
1. Various of newly opened abortion clinic with activists gathered inside for its inauguration
2. SOUNDBITE: (Polish) Justyna Wydrzynska, Polish abortion rights activist:
"We are in the “Abotak” abortion clinic. Today is the first day of opening our clinic. We expect that people who need an abortion will come here. Simply our friends who have always supported us and are always with us."
3. Shelves with pink boxes labelled (English) "Abortion pills"
4. SOUNDBITE: (Polish) Kinga Jelinska, Polish abortion rights activist:
"And this place is really a gift from us to women. And this place was funded almost entirely by donations from people who have been writing to us for many years saying, ‘Girls, can you also have a place where we can come and have an abortion with you?’”
5. Close of Jelinska speaking
6. SOUNDBITE: (Polish) Kinga Jelinska, Polish abortion rights activist:
"Today you can come to us and have an abortion with pills with us, because this place reflects what the reality of abortion looks like in 2025. And what do you need for an abortion? A friendly word, good information. Pills that come to your home from a non-governmental organization."
7. Various of police speaking with activists inside clinic
8. Various of anti-abortion protesters gathered outside newly opened clinic with flags and placards UPSOUND Audio recording with sounds of babies’ cries
9. Protester holding rosary
STORYLINE:
Polish abortion rights activists opened a center across from the parliament building in Warsaw on Saturday where women can go to have abortions with pills, either alone or with other women.
Opening the center on International Women’s Day across from the legislature was a symbolic challenge to authorities in the traditionally Roman Catholic nation, which has one of Europe’s most restrictive abortion laws.
A small but loud group of protesters demonstrated outside the “Abotak” center as activists gathered inside for its inauguration.
They blasted loud sounds of babies’ cries and held huge, gruesome posters.
The abortion rights activists with Abortion Dream Team had private security guards standing at the door, while police also formed a barrier between protesters and the center.
“This place is really a gift from us to women,” one of the activists, Kinga Jelińska said.
She wore a mint green sweatshirt with the words “abortion is normal.”
Jelińska said it was the first stationary abortion center in Poland, but that centers like it have been founded in Latin American countries with restrictive laws like Mexico and Argentina.
She and her colleagues said that it will be a safe place for women who prefer not to have abortions alone in their bathrooms at home.
Women can show up for advice, or to have abortions together, or in a space alone.
Asked if the center would provide the pills themselves, Jelińska said that was between the activists and the women who need abortions.
One of the activists who launched the center is Justyna Wydrzyńska, who was found guilty by a court in 2023 of abetting an abortion.
That ruling was recently annulled and a retrial was ordered.
The organization has been trying to destigmatize abortion in a society where they say abortions are common, most carried out by women at home with pills, but abortion remains a taboo topic.
They have also been pushing for a change in the law, but without success.
Last year he acknowledged that he lacks the backing in parliament to change the law.
That sparked massive street protests.
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