Otwock. Anti-abortion exhibition at the playground. Residents outraged

Residents described a tent being erected in the center of Otwock, at the entrance to a playground in a square full of children. On the walls of the tent were photos of “torn” fetuses.

“I witnessed a scene: a boy about four years old asks his grandmother: why does the baby have a ripped belly? At that moment, a menacing voice of a man can be heard from a megaphone, repeating over and over: 'murdering children, murdering children, murdered children'. The boy starts crying hysterically, pulls his grandmother by the hand and screams 'this man is murdering children, he'll rip my belly apart too'. The grandmother grabbed him and turned him away from the park,” one of the residents described the situation.

According to another person, pro-life activists set up in a place where mothers and children spend their time. “A tent was set up, and on it there was a large, colorful poster with a torn, bloody child. There was a guy in the tent reading an anti-abortion text, where he kept repeating 'murdering children'. Children were asking why there was a murdered child on the poster and whether the man who said this would murder them too,” wrote a resident of Otwock on Kontakt 24. As she noted, she alerted the police about this, but as she stated – to no avail. In her opinion, the posters were scary. She and the rest of those spending their free time in the park left with their crying children.

The situation was also described by a third person, who sent photos from the event. on Contact 24:

We asked the Otwock police about the event. – There was a previously reported gathering in Otwock. At the moment, we have no information about any offense or crime committed during this event – Staff Sergeant Marcin Jabłoński from the Otwock County Police Headquarters told us.

The posters indicate that the Pro-Prawo do życia foundation, headquartered in Pruszków near Warsaw, was responsible for the event. They have conducted similar campaigns in other parts of the country. The foundation's website features reports from the rosary and picket in Gliwice and Zabrze, a volunteer campaign in front of the hospital in Oleśnica, and anti-abortion posters in Krosno. Members of this foundation also picketed in July in front of the Mermaid on the Vistula monument, where they set up a tent similar to the one in Otwock with the inscription “Abortion is murder. Abortion for psychiatric indications = abortion on demand”.

A few days ago on tvn24.pl we reported that Prosecutor General Adam Bodnar issued guidelines for prosecutors related to handling abortion cases. Prosecutors are to, among other things, “maintain the highest level of professionalism” when questioning women and “reliably determine” the consequences of refusing to have an abortion. Information about the new guidelines for prosecutors was published on Friday evening on the website of the National Prosecutor's Office.

Until the Constitutional Tribunal's ruling in 2020, termination of pregnancy in Poland was possible in three cases: when the pregnancy endangered the woman's life or health, when it resulted from a prohibited act (including rape or incest) or there was a reasonable suspicion of severe and irreversible fetal defects. In October 2020, the Constitutional Tribunal questioned the third of these premises.

READ ALSO: Abortion decriminalization bill back in the Sejm

In the following months, the public sphere was circulated, among other things, about the death of a 33-year-old patient who died in the fifth month in a hospital in Nowy Targ. The cause of death was supposedly sepsis, which developed in the woman's body when doctors delayed terminating the pregnancy and removing the dead fetus. This case sparked many protests across the country under the slogan “Not one more”. Protesters then raised the argument that the cause of the tragedy was draconian regulations that have a chilling effect on doctors.