The EU is powerless to stop Poland’s liberal lapse

Zoliborz is one of Warsaw’s most prestigious addresses. Its leafy streets are popular with journalists, university professors and, as of last week, thousands of protestors. The suburb is home to Jaroslaw Kaczynski, Poland’s former prime minister who has led the ruling Law and Justice party for close to two decades. Despite holding no government office for most of that time, the control and influence he has over ministers has led many to conclude he is Poland’s head of state in all but name.

It’s for that reason his home on a quiet residential avenue has become the destination of choice for marches and pickets over the past two weeks, after a decision by Poland’s constitutional court ‘effectively barred’ access to legal abortions. Family planning is often a taboo subject in the country, with more than nine in ten Poles identifying as Roman Catholic. The country’s laws governing termination of pregnancies were already among the strictest in Europe.

The ruling, which cannot be appealed, closes the door to abortion on the grounds of foetal defects — which the verdict stated would breach the ‘right to life’ enshrined in the constitution.