Several thousand people have marched through cities across Poland in recent days in protest against a near-total ban on abortion since it was put into effect by the conservative government on Wednesday.

Defying coronavirus restrictions, hundreds gathered in central Warsaw on Friday (left), chanting "freedom, equality, abortion on demand". Some carried placards that said "I am afraid to live here" and "Banning abortion discriminates against the poor".

The protests follow a Constitutional Tribunal ruling from October that terminating pregnancies with foetal defects was unconstitutional, eliminating the most frequently used case for legal abortion in the predominantly Catholic nation.

Under the new rules, abortion can be performed legally only in the case of rape or incest and when the mother's health or life is at risk, putting Poland outside the European mainstream. Doctors defying the law face jail.

The tribunal ruling on Oct 22 sparked the first wave of protests that lasted for weeks. The protests had quickly morphed into an outpouring of anger against the nationalist Law and Justice government and the powerful Catholic Church.