Demonstrations are scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. in Warsaw, Gdańsk, Poznań, Katowice, Łódź, Kraków, Wrocław and Szczecin, among other locations.
Organisers describe the protests as the largest of their kind in two years.
The campaign was initiated by the Gdańsk-based Widzialne Foundation, with the involvement of other women's rights organisations.
In 2020, Poland's Constitutional Tribunal ruled unconstitutional a provision allowing abortion in cases of severe and irreversible foetal impairment or an incurable illness threatening the foetus' life.
The ruling triggered nationwide protests.
Relaxing abortion laws was a key pledge of the coalition that came to power after the 2023 elections.
Women's rights groups say the government has failed to introduce measures that would make women feel safer in hospitals, including solutions that could bypass a presidential veto.
Activists say women whose pregnancies threaten their lives or health are still being turned away by hospitals because doctors fear they lack a legal basis to provide care. Some women are consequently forced to seek assistance outside Poland.
On Tuesday, Polish lawmakers passed a bill that would partially decriminalise abortion with the woman's consent and assistance in obtaining an abortion.
The bill was approved by 217 MPs, with 213 voting against and three abstaining.
Those voting against included Deputy Prime Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, a centrist politician who leads the rural-based Polish People's Party (PSL).
The bill would repeal criminal provisions covering a woman's consent to an abortion and assistance in obtaining one.
It would also exclude criminal liability for doctors, nurses and midwives in certain medical procedures necessary to protect a pregnant woman's life or health.
Separately, Poland's lower house on Tuesday voted through legislation that would restore the possibility of legal abortion in cases of severe foetal abnormalities, reversing the effect of the 2020 Constitutional Tribunal ruling.
That bill passed with 233 votes in favour, 203 against and one abstention.
Both bills will now go to the upper house of Poland's parliament, the Senate, for further debate.
Even if approved by senators, they would still require the signature of President Karol Nawrocki, a conservative who opposes expanding abortion rights.
Women's rights groups say the proposed changes remain insufficient compared with the broader reforms they have demanded.
(sp/gs)
Source: WP.pl