What Poland Tells America About Abortion Politics

Democrats and Republicans alike can learn from the only other country to roll back the legal right to abortion in the last 15 years.

by ELLA CREAMER
11/07/2022

It happened like this: A dogged religious right and a determined set of anti-abortion movers and shakers poured years of work into curbing abortion access. Their efforts swayed conservative politicians, who adopted opposition to abortion as a central ideological goal in a vicious culture war. They appointed conservative judges to the courts, and when the topic of abortion crossed those judges’ dockets, they made a shocking yet predictable ruling that vastly curtailed abortion access.

No, I’m not talking about the U.S. This is what happened in Poland.

Continued: https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/11/07/poland-america-abortion-politics-00065416


Two Polish women died after being refused timely abortions. Many Poles are outraged — and protesting.

Antiabortion organizations are powerful in Poland, but
abortion rights support is growing

By Courtney Blackington, Washington Post
Feb 18, 2022

Last month, the death of a Polish woman known as “Agnieszka T.” inflamed public debate about Poland’s abortion law. She died a month after doctors delayed aborting twin fetuses, which had separately died in utero over the course of a week. Her family blames Poland’s current abortion law for her death. Another woman, Izabela, died under similar circumstances last September. Their deaths may be spurring protests in support of abortion access. In my research, I have spoken to activists to understand what drives them to protest.

Continued: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/02/18/poland-abortion-protest/


Three women on their fight for abortion rights in Poland

Academic Agnieszka Graff, lawyer Karolina Więckiewicz and gynaecologist Anna Parzyńska discuss their fight for abortion rights. An attempt by authorities to impose a near-total ban on terminations has sparked mass demonstrations across the country

Podcast: 00:24:10
Mon 14 Dec 2020

On 22 October, Poland’s constitutional court ruled to ban abortions in cases of congenital foetal defects, even if the foetus has no chance of survival. The decision by the court’s 15 pro-ruling party judges, many of them appointed unlawfully, would allow terminations only in instances of rape, incest and when the mother’s life is at risk – a tiny fraction of cases. Women’s groups estimate that an additional 200,000 Polish women have abortions either illegally or abroad each year – Poland has some of Europe’s strictest abortion laws.

Continued:  https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/audio/2020/dec/15/three-women-on-their-fight-for-abortion-rights-in-poland


‘This is war’: Inside Poland’s abortion protests

Activists in Poland are declaring war after a court decided to restrict abortion in cases of fetal abnormalities.

16 Nov 2020
22-minute podcast

Poland has some of the most restrictive abortion laws in Europe. So, when a Polish court tried to restrict abortion even further, it led to mass protests – the largest the country has seen since the fall of communism. Members of Poland’s emboldened feminist movement walk us through the protests and tell us what to expect next.

In this episode: Scholar and writer Agnieszka Graff; Gosia Wochowska and Wiktoria Sakowicz of Gals4Gals Lodz; student and activist Kajetan Chlipalski.

Continued: https://www.aljazeera.com/podcasts/2020/11/16/poland-abortion-protests/


Polish women hail victory in abortion standoff and seek more

by Vanessa Gera, The Associated Press

Posted Oct 6, 2016 6:25 am ADT

WARSAW, Poland – Polish women are declaring victory in a dramatic showdown that pitted them against an anti-abortion group and the conservative government this week. Three days after the women donned black, boycotted work and staged giant street protests, lawmakers on Thursday voted overwhelming against a complete ban on abortion — a proposal they had supported just two weeks earlier.

The victory merely maintains the status quo, which is one of the most restrictive abortion laws in Europe, but feminists hope they have gained the momentum to attack that next.

Agnieszka Graff, a prominent feminist commentator, said she and other feminists have struggled in vain for years to reach younger Polish women, and that this was the first time she has seen them mobilized in huge numbers.

“The feeling on the street was revolutionary. Women were angry but they were also elated at seeing how many of us there were. The black clothes created this secret-but-open signal that connected strangers on the street,” Graff said.

[continued at link]
Source: Associated Press / News957