The Myth of Legal Abortions in Poland
Julia Swietek rails against Poland’s recent abortion restrictions and the corruptive government that enforces them.
Julia Swietek
12 February 2021
12 February 2021
Writing an article expressing my political and, quite frankly, very personal beliefs is not something I am ever inclined to do. Yet something about the Polish Constitutional Court’s recent ruling to restrict abortion rights has left me agitated and disturbed.
Let us start with some history. Many people are unaware of the current political system that dominates Poland, and it is not something I will explore in depth as it is despicable. But, it is important to understand how it has led to women and girls to still be under attack in Poland right now.
The fall of the socialist state in Poland in 1989 constituted a critical moment which redefined policies on reproductive health care and access to family planning. It was influenced by the renewed power of the Catholic Church and the neoliberal economic reforms that resulted in major cutbacks in social services and state health coverage. Ever since, abortion as a political agenda has fluctuated, to the point that, in 2011, the very right-wing government attempted to outright ban abortions. The 2016 Black Protests brought the conversation of women’s reproductive rights to national attention once again, and it has stayed stagnant ever since. Well, up until now.
In October 2020, the Constitutional Court ruled that terminating pregnancies due to foetal abnormalities should be illegal. Thus, under the new law, abortions are only permitted in cases of rape and incest, or when the mother’s life is endangered. In the ruling, the Tribunal’s president, Julia Przylebska, said that allowing abortions in cases of foetal abnormality legalised ‘eugenic practices with regard to an unborn child, thus denying it the respect and protection of human dignity’. While it may seem ironic and even bizarre that a woman is perpetuating the male-centred narrative of controlling women’s bodies, so much becomes apparent when we return to exploring the troubling politics of Poland.
Poland’s ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party has been accused of politicising the Constitutional Tribunal and using it to push through ultra-conservative agenda, not only on abortion. This leaves Polish judges without guaranteed protection from political control, as required by the EU Court of Human Rights. In fact, the country has already been called out for breaching the rule of law and failing to fulfil its obligations under the European Convention of Human Rights.
Poland’s abortion laws were already among the strictest in Europe. Even Ireland has overturned its heavily criticised Eighth Amendment prohibiting abortions, which the UN Human Rights Committee and European Court of Human Rights heavily condemned. In Chile, years of attempts to decriminalise abortion eventually resulted in change in 2017.
Abortion has emerged as one of the most divisive issues since PiS took power in 2015, promising a return to a traditional society with generous welfare policies. It’s time to pull Poland out of the shackles of this ‘traditional’ and currently very unattainable rhetoric. It is time the country started to respect the rights of women and men who have been constantly marginalised by the supposed traditionalism that the current government is trying to uphold.
As a result, many Polish women have now been forced to seek abortions abroad. Before the decision, Poland permitted terminations for foetal abnormalities, which presented an overwhelming majority of legal abortions - 1,074 of 1,100 abortions performed last year. Yet the BBC also reported estimates of illegal abortions per year ranging between 10,000 and 150,000 which presents an abominable mess. As stated by the leader of Poland’s largest opposition party, the centrist Civic Platform, ‘no law-abiding government should respect this ruling’. That’s exactly where the issue lies - the inherently unethical and unauthorised workings of the ruling party.
It is now well established that legal restrictions on abortion do not diminish numbers of abortions but lead to increased morbidity and mortality as more women are left to seek illegal and unsafe abortions, which are now more easily accessible online. Under these oppressive restrictions on safe abortion access, women are left at the mercy to these dangerous and, ultimately, life-threatening ways out. This has been condemned by the European Court of Human Rights on numerous occasions, but the most striking was the decision of Tysiac v Poland in 2007. In this case, the Polish government were condemned for their violation of Article 8 in the European Court of Human Rights, which protects the right to respect of an individual’s private and family life. The Tysiac v Poland case concerned Tysiac, a visually impaired woman, who was repeatedly denied abortion access when it was clear from medical examination that pregnancy would cause severe deterioration of her vision. Forced to carry the child to full term, Tysiac’s vision was left badly damaged, leaving her with a serious risk of blindness. It is in this repressive cruelty that Tysiac faced in seeking abortion access that clearly delineates the PiS party’s oppressive and traumatic control upon the female body.
What makes this worse is that access to abortion has been declined even without the legislative curbs as more doctors refuse to perform them on religious grounds. The stigmatised view of abortion as criminal in and of itself is founded upon statute enacted in the Victorian era over 150 years ago. Maybe it’s time to change the narrative of the male doctor as level-headed and the woman as the vulnerable prey in need of (male) protection. It’s time for women in Poland to reclaim their autonomy and for the government to stop reflecting ancient notions of the pathologization of abortion - ideas which have long been discredited.
The announcement has since sparked weeks of mass protests, some of the largest the country has seen since the Solidarity movement of the 1980s, which helped end Communist rule. Yet the Polish government has said they won’t allow women-led street protests to trigger a ‘revolution’ after the police cracked down on demonstrations for abortion rights. They used pepper spray and batons as a show of the power of the Law and Justice Party. Despite its name, the Party clearly does not reflect what it stands for.
Please take the time to show your solidarity with Polish women still fighting for their rights in the 21st century:
https://abortion-in-poland.carrd.co
https://www.change.org/p/polish-government-legalise-abortions-in-poland-women-deserve-their-own-choice?utm_content=cl_sharecopy_22617433_en-GB%3A1&recruiter=914317645&recruited_by_id=4474bb90-e887-11e8-8bb3-bb976b05d78c&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink&utm_campaign=psf_combo_share_initial&utm_term=psf_combo_share_initial
Some charities supporting the women currently striking:
Amnesty International Poland
Aborcyjny Dream Team
Abortion Support Network
Human Rights Watch
Women Help Women
Let us start with some history. Many people are unaware of the current political system that dominates Poland, and it is not something I will explore in depth as it is despicable. But, it is important to understand how it has led to women and girls to still be under attack in Poland right now.
The fall of the socialist state in Poland in 1989 constituted a critical moment which redefined policies on reproductive health care and access to family planning. It was influenced by the renewed power of the Catholic Church and the neoliberal economic reforms that resulted in major cutbacks in social services and state health coverage. Ever since, abortion as a political agenda has fluctuated, to the point that, in 2011, the very right-wing government attempted to outright ban abortions. The 2016 Black Protests brought the conversation of women’s reproductive rights to national attention once again, and it has stayed stagnant ever since. Well, up until now.
In October 2020, the Constitutional Court ruled that terminating pregnancies due to foetal abnormalities should be illegal. Thus, under the new law, abortions are only permitted in cases of rape and incest, or when the mother’s life is endangered. In the ruling, the Tribunal’s president, Julia Przylebska, said that allowing abortions in cases of foetal abnormality legalised ‘eugenic practices with regard to an unborn child, thus denying it the respect and protection of human dignity’. While it may seem ironic and even bizarre that a woman is perpetuating the male-centred narrative of controlling women’s bodies, so much becomes apparent when we return to exploring the troubling politics of Poland.
Poland’s ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party has been accused of politicising the Constitutional Tribunal and using it to push through ultra-conservative agenda, not only on abortion. This leaves Polish judges without guaranteed protection from political control, as required by the EU Court of Human Rights. In fact, the country has already been called out for breaching the rule of law and failing to fulfil its obligations under the European Convention of Human Rights.
Poland’s abortion laws were already among the strictest in Europe. Even Ireland has overturned its heavily criticised Eighth Amendment prohibiting abortions, which the UN Human Rights Committee and European Court of Human Rights heavily condemned. In Chile, years of attempts to decriminalise abortion eventually resulted in change in 2017.
Abortion has emerged as one of the most divisive issues since PiS took power in 2015, promising a return to a traditional society with generous welfare policies. It’s time to pull Poland out of the shackles of this ‘traditional’ and currently very unattainable rhetoric. It is time the country started to respect the rights of women and men who have been constantly marginalised by the supposed traditionalism that the current government is trying to uphold.
As a result, many Polish women have now been forced to seek abortions abroad. Before the decision, Poland permitted terminations for foetal abnormalities, which presented an overwhelming majority of legal abortions - 1,074 of 1,100 abortions performed last year. Yet the BBC also reported estimates of illegal abortions per year ranging between 10,000 and 150,000 which presents an abominable mess. As stated by the leader of Poland’s largest opposition party, the centrist Civic Platform, ‘no law-abiding government should respect this ruling’. That’s exactly where the issue lies - the inherently unethical and unauthorised workings of the ruling party.
It is now well established that legal restrictions on abortion do not diminish numbers of abortions but lead to increased morbidity and mortality as more women are left to seek illegal and unsafe abortions, which are now more easily accessible online. Under these oppressive restrictions on safe abortion access, women are left at the mercy to these dangerous and, ultimately, life-threatening ways out. This has been condemned by the European Court of Human Rights on numerous occasions, but the most striking was the decision of Tysiac v Poland in 2007. In this case, the Polish government were condemned for their violation of Article 8 in the European Court of Human Rights, which protects the right to respect of an individual’s private and family life. The Tysiac v Poland case concerned Tysiac, a visually impaired woman, who was repeatedly denied abortion access when it was clear from medical examination that pregnancy would cause severe deterioration of her vision. Forced to carry the child to full term, Tysiac’s vision was left badly damaged, leaving her with a serious risk of blindness. It is in this repressive cruelty that Tysiac faced in seeking abortion access that clearly delineates the PiS party’s oppressive and traumatic control upon the female body.
What makes this worse is that access to abortion has been declined even without the legislative curbs as more doctors refuse to perform them on religious grounds. The stigmatised view of abortion as criminal in and of itself is founded upon statute enacted in the Victorian era over 150 years ago. Maybe it’s time to change the narrative of the male doctor as level-headed and the woman as the vulnerable prey in need of (male) protection. It’s time for women in Poland to reclaim their autonomy and for the government to stop reflecting ancient notions of the pathologization of abortion - ideas which have long been discredited.
The announcement has since sparked weeks of mass protests, some of the largest the country has seen since the Solidarity movement of the 1980s, which helped end Communist rule. Yet the Polish government has said they won’t allow women-led street protests to trigger a ‘revolution’ after the police cracked down on demonstrations for abortion rights. They used pepper spray and batons as a show of the power of the Law and Justice Party. Despite its name, the Party clearly does not reflect what it stands for.
Please take the time to show your solidarity with Polish women still fighting for their rights in the 21st century:
https://abortion-in-poland.carrd.co
https://www.change.org/p/polish-government-legalise-abortions-in-poland-women-deserve-their-own-choice?utm_content=cl_sharecopy_22617433_en-GB%3A1&recruiter=914317645&recruited_by_id=4474bb90-e887-11e8-8bb3-bb976b05d78c&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink&utm_campaign=psf_combo_share_initial&utm_term=psf_combo_share_initial
Some charities supporting the women currently striking:
Amnesty International Poland
Aborcyjny Dream Team
Abortion Support Network
Human Rights Watch
Women Help Women