This article examines successful mass mobilization against the proposed total ban on abortion, focusing on the Black Protest initiated online in September 2016 and the All-Poland’s Women Strikes which took place on the 3rd and 24th of October 2016. The aim is to explain how the resistance towards the proposed bill emerged and developed over time, and to shed light on the factors behind its success. It is argued that the emergence of and mass participation in the protests resulted from a range of factors including the heightened political climate in Poland and normalization of street protests as a reaction to the closing of regular communication channels between citizens and authorities, as well as an emotional dynamic of mobilization and wide use of social media for sharing information, communication and networking. The success – the government’s decision to reject the project – can be explained as stemming from the mass scale of mobilization but also from favorable political opportunity structure and the lack of popular support for the proposed law. The analysis shows that the protests followed the logic of connective action based on the use of flexible, easily personalized action frames, which were well-embedded in cultural narratives referencing the history of resistance against an oppressive state.