Women protest against imposing further restrictions on abortion law in Poland in Szczecin, Poland Photograph:( Reuters )
After the ruling goes into effect, abortion will only be permissible in Poland in the case of rape, incest, or a threat to the mother's health and life, which make up only around 2 per cent of legal terminations conducted in recent years
Poland's Constitutional Tribunal ruled on Thursday that abortion due to foetal defects was unconstitutional, banning the most common of the few legal grounds for pregnancy termination in the predominantly Catholic country.
After the ruling goes into effect, abortion will only be permissible in Poland in the case of rape, incest, or a threat to the mother's health and life, which make up only around 2 per cent of legal terminations conducted in recent years.
The development pushes Poland further away from the European mainstream, as the only EU country apart from tiny Malta to severely restrict access to abortion.
Women's rights groups reacted with dismay and Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Dunja Mijatovic called it a "sad day for women's rights."
"Removing the basis for almost all legal abortions in Poland amounts to a ban and violates human rights. Today's ruling of the Constitutional Court means underground/abroad abortions for those who can afford and even greater ordeal for all others," Mijatovic wrote.
Conservative values have played a growing role in public life in Poland since the nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) came into power five years ago on a promise to defend what it sees as the nation's traditional, Catholic character.
Curbing access to abortion has been a long-standing ambition of the party, but it has stepped back from previous legislative proposals amid a widespread public backlash.
Critics say the Constitutional Tribunal may have acted on the party's behalf. While the Tribunal is nominally independent, most of its judges have been appointed by PiS. The party denies trying to influence the court.