(Bloomberg) -- Poland’s main opposition party called for fresh protests ahead of fall elections after police searched a woman who said she was suffering from anxiety after taking an abortion pill.

The issue of reproductive rights is starting to resonate with the public ahead of the close-fought parliamentary ballot slated for October after the ruling Law & Justice party tightened abortion laws that are already the most restrictive in Europe.

The call for demonstrations on Oct. 1 by Donald Tusk, the leader of the opposition Civic Platform party, follows reports from a woman from the southern city of Krakow that she was confronted by police after notifying a doctor that she had taken an abortion pill that she had bought online.

“This shocking picture is much more than just another drama of a Polish woman in a country ruled by Law & Justice,” Tusk said during a news conference on Wednesday.

Public outrage over the case has put the ruling party on the defensive as it’s trying to rebuild support in a bid to win its third national election since 2015. Opinion polls show that it remains Poland’s most popular party with support of about a third of voters, helped by generous social spending on families with children and elderly. 

Still, that’s far below the almost 44% the party won in 2019 elections, a drop pollsters attribute in part to a near total ban on legal abortions imposed three years ago, which triggered nationwide anti-government rallies that drew hundreds of thousands of people and were the biggest since the fall of communism.

Almost two out of five Law & Justice voters and three quarters of opposition supporters say the abortion law poses a potential threat to women’s lives, according to a June poll by IBRiS.

Law & Justice member and Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak rejected Tusk’s call for protests, arguing on Polish Radio 1 on Thursday that police had intervened in the woman’s case because it was “a suicide attempt.” Henryk Kowalczyk, another government minister, questioned the woman’s motive in making her story public and said the opposition was exploiting the case for political means.

The woman, who identified herself by only her first name, Joanna, said the doctor had called police after she contacted him seeking assistance. She was then taken to two hospitals by officers, who confiscated her phone and laptop and forced her to undress despite doctors telling them there was no need for the police to be present.

“She felt unwell and thus called a doctor, who broke patient confidentiality,” said Krystyna Kacpura, the president of the Foundation for Women and Family Planning. 

Police chief Jaroslaw Szymczyk told a news conference on Thursday that officers followed procedure, didn’t detain the woman and seized her laptop only to establish the source of the substance she had purchased. 

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