Pushing for abortion ban was a “mistake”, admits Polish prime minister

Notes from Poland
Nov 6, 2023

Poland’s prime minister has admitted that it was a “mistake” for MPs from his ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party to submit the application that led the Constitutional Tribunal (TK) to introduce a near-total ban on abortion in 2020.

Mateusz Morawiecki says that he “has always been a supporter” of the abortion law that existed before the TK ruling and he believes that tightening the law may have contributed to PiS losing its parliamentary majority at last month’s elections.

Continued: https://notesfrompoland.com/2023/11/06/pushing-for-abortion-ban-was-a-mistake-admits-polish-prime-minister/

06.11.2023

Poland Constitutional Tribunal

Outcry in Poland over abortion law

Two Polish hospitals refused to terminate the pregnancy of an underage rape victim. The case has sparked controversy over the country's restrictive legislation, with women's rights activists insisting it must be eased.

Jacek Lepiarz
February 5, 2023

A scandal is raging in Polish politics and in the media, concering the shocking case of a 14-year-old rape victim. The girl, who is from the Podlaskie region in northeastern Poland and has mental disabilities, was raped by her own uncle and became pregnant as a result. She was unaware of her condition, but her aunt noticed it and tried to help her get an abortion.

Although the girl had written confirmation from the public prosecutor that she was pregnant as the result of a crime, which gave her the right to a legal abortion, two hospitals in the region refused to carry out the procedure. The province of Podlaskie on the Belarusian border is a bastion of the right-wing conservative Law and Justice Party (PiS), which has been in power in Poland since 2015.

Continued: https://www.dw.com/en/poland-outcry-over-abortion-law/a-64586531

Polish health minister ‘appalled’ girl, 14, struggled to get abortion after rape

Doctors at several hospitals cited a conscience clause to avoid treating the teenager who has a mental disability

Agence France-Presse in Warsaw
Mon 30 Jan 2023

Poland’s health minister has weighed in on a high-profile rape case, saying it was “unacceptable” that a mentally disabled 14-year-old girl struggled to get a legal abortion.

The case, in which doctors at several hospitals used a conscience clause to avoid carrying out the procedure, has sparked renewed calls to ease the Catholic country’s abortion laws, which are among Europe’s most stringent.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jan/30/polish-health-minister-appalled-girl-14-struggled-to-get-abortion-after

Police block Warsaw march against abortion ruling, force use

Nov 28, 2020
By: Vanessa Gera, Canadian Press

WARSAW, Poland — Police blocked protesters from marching in Poland's capital as demonstrations took place across the country against an attempt to restrict abortion rights and recent police violence.

Police and protesters played a game of cat and mouse in Warsaw as officers set up cordons which the protesters sought to evade, pushing them to try to regroup elsewhere in the city centre.

Continued: https://www.rmotoday.com/world-news/police-block-warsaw-march-against-abortion-ruling-force-use-3135578

28.11.2020

police brutality against protesters

pro-choice protests

Strajk Kobiet

Women's Rights Roundabout

Poland Delays a Near-Total Ban on Abortion

The move came after two weeks of protests that were the most intense in the country since the 1989 collapse of communism.

By Monika Pronczuk
Nov. 4, 2020

BRUSSELS — Poland’s right-wing government has delayed implementation of a court ruling that would impose a near-total ban on abortions after two weeks of the largest protests the country has experienced since the 1989 collapse of communism.

The country already had one of Europe’s most restrictive abortion laws before its Constitutional Tribunal ruled on Oct. 22 that terminating pregnancies for fetal abnormalities — one of three justifications for legal abortions and virtually the only type performed in the country — violated the Constitution.

Continued: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/04/world/europe/poland-abortion-law-delay.html

Poland Court Ruling Effectively Bans Legal Abortions

The decision, which cannot be appealed, halts pregnancy terminations for fetal abnormalities, virtually the only type currently performed in the country.

By Monika Pronczuk
Oct. 22, 2020

A constitutional tribunal in Poland ruled on Thursday that abortions for fetal abnormalities violate the country’s Constitution, effectively imposing a near-total ban in a nation that already had some of the strictest abortion laws in Europe.

The debate over a woman’s right to terminate a pregnancy, a divisive issue in a staunchly Roman Catholic country, mirrors the bitter polarization of a society caught between traditional religious values and more liberal ones.

Continued: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/22/world/europe/poland-tribunal-abortions.html

Polish woman’s quest for abortion exposes conflicted society

By Alicja Ptak
OCTOBER 19, 2020

WARSAW (Reuters) - In April, in the midst of a nationwide coronavirus lockdown in Poland, Katarzyna found out that the baby she was carrying had a severe genetic disorder and would probably die before birth or shortly after.

She immediately decided to terminate the pregnancy. When she finally managed to, five weeks later and after meeting some 10 doctors, securing a fallback plan in Germany and researching home methods, she knew she would not try to get pregnant again.

Continued: https://ca.reuters.com/article/idCAKBN27429N

Poland’s abortion debate back in parliament

Poland’s abortion debate back in parliament

EURACTIV.com with AFP
Jan 10, 2018

Poland’s abortion debate was back on the agenda on Wednesday (10 January), more than a year after tens of thousands of black-clad women successfully took to the streets in the Catholic country to stop the tightening of a law that is already one of the most restrictive in Europe.

The Polish parliament, which is controlled by the right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) party, began debating two competing draft laws: one that aims to liberalise the law and another that seeks to ban abortion when the foetus is deformed.

Continued: https://www.euractiv.com/section/freedom-of-thought/news/polands-abortion-debate-back-in-parliament/

How Poland’s far-right government is pushing abortion underground

How Poland’s far-right government is pushing abortion underground
A year ago, mass protests in Poland defeated a new abortion ban. But the ruling party, supported by the church, continues to cut reproductive rights – leaving people at the mercy of the black market.

By Alex Cocotas
Thursday 30 November 2017

Barbara Nowacka first had an inkling that something exceptional was happening on the morning of the protests. It was October 2016, and a journalist she knew, a conservative, called to ask how it was looking. She told him she had no idea what was going to happen. The journalist told her that his two daughters had gone to school that morning dressed in black. Perhaps, Nowacka thought, this could be big.

A ban on abortion in Poland had been put forward in parliament six months earlier, and Nowacka, a leftwing politician and long-time social activist, was a leading figure in the movement to oppose it. Nationwide protests had been scheduled for 3 October, but like most people, she had little hope that they would succeed. Perhaps they would get a nice crowd, a little media coverage; but it would ultimately be a gesture. The law would pass.

continued at source: https://www.theguardian.com/news/2017/nov/30/how-polands-far-right-government-is-pushing-abortion-underground

Abortion law in Poland: Pro-death, no future

by Dorota Głażewska
Sept 26, 2016

A few days ago a 12-year old girl gave birth to a child in Kielce. The doctors are in a state of shock. Newspapers are in a state of shock. And I am pissed off. If the bill is passed, such stories will become common occurrence, completely normal and no one should express surprise. In Polish schools there is no sex education and young girls do not have access to gynecological care. Even if there were a gynecological service for girls, but the law was introduced, girls would be forced to continue with their pregnancies, and if any of the doctors tried to save them at an early stage, they could be sentenced to a few years in prison. If girls miscarried, as they’re too young, would they face 2-years’ imprisonment or only a juvenile detention center? Only in this year, in one hospital in Wroclaw, fourteen girls have given birth to children – remarked Barbara Nowacka, leader of the Save Women initiative, in the Sejm. Is Poland supposed to be a country with a more restrictive anti-abortion law than Afghanistan or Iran?

[continued at link]
Source: Political Critique

26.09.2016

Save Women initiative