In Poland, I Saw What a Second Trump Term Could Do to America

by Michelle Goldberg
Photographs by Rafal Milach
Feb. 6, 2024

Adam Bodnar, Poland’s new justice minister, recently explained to me the immense challenge of rebuilding liberal democracy in his country after an eight-year slide toward authoritarianism. Imagine, he said, that Donald Trump had won the last election and been in power for two terms instead of one. “What would be the damage?” he asked.

After only four years of Trump, President Biden inherited a furiously divided nation, its courts seeded with right-wing apparatchiks and the nature of reality itself in deep dispute. But as even MAGA die-hards will acknowledge, Trump often failed to bend the state to his will, which is why his allies have a plan to do things differently next time, purging civil servants and replacing them with loyalists. Poland is a country that has just gone through something like what Trumpists hope to impose on us in a second term. Its institutions have been hollowed out. Many experienced technocrats and neutral judges have been replaced by lackeys and ideologues.

Continue: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/06/opinion/abortion-ban-poland-democracy.html


Poland: Escalating Threats to Women Activists

Human Rights Watch
March 31, 2021

(Berlin) – Bomb and death threats targeting at least seven groups in Poland for supporting women’s rights and the right to abortion are disturbing reminders of escalating risks to women’s human rights defenders in the country, Human Rights Watch, CIVICUS, and International Planned Parenthood Federation-European Network (IPPF-EN) said today.

The authorities should urgently investigate, protect the women targeted and hold those responsible for the threats accountable. Polish officials should also counter abusive misinformation campaigns targeting activists.

Continued: https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/03/31/poland-escalating-threats-women-activists


Helsinki Foundation intervenes over application of abortion ruling

DECEMBER 02, 2020

The Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights (HFHR) has said it is interceding in the matter of Polish hospitals applying a ruling by the Constitutional Tribunal (TK) banning abortions on the grounds of foetal damage even though the ruling has not been published.

The foundation said there was no legal basis to deny women a pregnancy termination for foetal abnormalities.

Continued: https://www.thefirstnews.com/article/helsinki-foundation-intervenes-over-application-of-abortion-ruling-18076


Poland abortion: Top court ban almost all terminations

October 22, 2020

Poland's top court has ruled that abortions in cases of foetal defects are unconstitutional.

Poland's abortion laws were already among the strictest in Europe but the Constitutional Tribunal's ruling will mean an almost total ban.

Once the decision comes into effect, terminations will only be allowed in cases of rape or incest, or if the mother's health is at risk.

Continued: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-54642108


Poland – Barbarian anti-abortion bill back in the fundamentalists’ game

Barbarian anti-abortion bill back in the fundamentalists’ game
June 29, 2018

Fundamentalists led by activist Kaja Godek forced the Social Policy and Family Committee to debate the repressive “Stop abortion” bill on Monday (2.07.2018) at 4 pm. Let us recall that this draft law would penalize abortions in case of foetal impairment, which now make up 95% of all legal abortions performed in the Polish hospitals. This decision comes as a surprise, because the committee declared not to deal with this draft law in the foreseeable future. Even more disrupting is the fact that Godek informed about the Monday session before a) it was announced at the website of the Parliament b) MPs were informed about the bill having been added to the Committee’s agenda. Since March, the anti-choice groups has led an intensified lobbying on the streets, social media, accusing the ruling party (Law and Justice) of being treacherous and too reluctant to sanction the abortion ban. Godek participated in many Committee’s session to exert pressure on the chairperson so that she would include the draft law in the agenda. The Committee received many critical opinions about the bill from the parliamentary Bureau of Research, The Supreme Bar Council, The Amnesty International Poland, The Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights and The Federation for Women and Family Planning.

Continued: http://en.federa.org.pl/barbarian-anti-abortion-bill-back-in-the-game/