Women demonstrate outside EU institutions on International Women's day

Record ID: 401462

  • Title: Women demonstrate outside EU institutions on International Women's day
  • Date: 8th March 2017
  • Summary: BRUSSELS, BELGIUM (MARCH 8, 2017) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF DEMONSTRATORS HOLDING UMBRELLAS GATHERED OUTSIDE EUROPEAN COUNCIL BUILDING WOMEN HOLDING BANNER READING (French/Turkish): "Take your hands and your tongues off our bodies" SIGN READING (English) "No to jail for abortion" WOMAN HOLDING SIGNS AND CHANTING PROTESTERS HOLDING SIGNS AND UMBRELLAS WOMAN STANDING AT DEMONSTRA
  • Embargoed: 22nd March 2017 13:06
  • Keywords: EU Protest Brussels Belgium Demonstration Women's day Abortion Poland
  • Location: BRUSSELS, BELGIUM
  • City: BRUSSELS, BELGIUM
  • Country: Belgium
  • Topics: Society/Social Issues
  • Reuters ID: LVA001673NQDJ
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text:Around 50 people protested on Wednesday (March 8) outside European Union institutions in Brussels on International Women's Day in support of women's rights world-wide.
    Women from Belgium, Poland, Kurdistan and Colombia participated in the demonstration and chanted "My body, my choice, my freedom" or "Women's right are Humans' Right," some of them holding signs readings 'No to jail for abortion' or 'Women's solidarity world-wide'.
    Some of the protesters focused on women's rights in Poland, where the conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party government plans to tighten already strict limits on abortion and align the law more closely with the teachings of the Roman Catholic church.
    A member of the Brussels-based Polish women's organization "Elle Sans Frontiere", Emilia Janisz, organized the protest on social media.
    She said the demonstration's participants wanted to stand up for Polish women's rights.
    "We want to show the solidarity with Polish women. The situation in Poland is critical for Polish women. We want to have the full access to contraception, emergency contraception. We want to have abortions made legal and safe. We need also support for NGOs defending women's rights," said Janisz, who has lived in Belgium for six years and works in the nuclear energy sector.
    Poland already has one of the most restrictive laws on abortion in the European Union, allowing it only in cases of rape, incest or danger to the mother's health, or when prenatal tests show serious and irreversible damage to the foetus.
    The powerful Catholic Church wants a total ban and the PiS put forward a bill last year that would have outlawed abortion in almost all cases.
    However, after tens of thousands of women took the streets to oppose the bill, parliament overwhelmingly rejected it in October 2016.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2017. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register