Polish join nationwide strike over abortion ruling

Women’s rights activists with posters of the Women’s Strike action protest against recent tightening of Poland’s restrictive abortion law in front of the parliament building as inside, guards had to be used to shield right-wing ruling party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski from angry opposition lawmakers, in Warsaw, Poland, on Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2020. Massive nationwide protests have been held ever since a top court ruled Thursday that abortions due to fetal congenital defects are unconstitutional. Slogan reads ‘Women’s Strike’. Picture: AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski

People across Poland are vowing to stay off their jobs on Wednesday as part of a nationwide strike in protest against a top court ruling that bans abortions in cases of congenitally damaged foetuses.

The nationwide strike comes amid a deepening standoff between angry crowds who have taken to the streets over the ruling and Poland’s deeply conservative government, which has vowed not to back down.