Fifth day of protests against near-total ban on abortion in Poland

On Monday for the fifth day in a row pro-choice protesters took to the streets to demonstrate against the recent ruling by the Constitutional Tribunal resulting in a near-total ban of abortions. Thousands of protesters across the country responded to spontaneous calls to block traffic. The protests lasted for several hours, paralyzing traffic and in some cases resulting in clashes between protesters and far-right nationalists who, in collaboration with police guarded churches. Poland, where the Catholic church has close ties with the conservative government has some of the strictest laws on abortion anywhere in the world.