‘I will do the same again’: activists continue fight against Poland’s strict abortion laws

Justyna Wydrzyńska, who was convicted for providing abortion pills, refuses to give up campaign for legal terminations

Jennifer Rankin
Wed 24 May 2023

In February 2020, a desperate woman made a phone call to the activist group Abortion Without Borders.

Ania (not her real name) was 12 weeks’ pregnant with twins and trapped in a relationship with a violent partner. She was also suffering from hyperemesis, an acute pregnancy sickness that left her vomiting multiple times a day, unable to keep down food. She wanted to end her pregnancy, but every avenue was blocked under Poland’s strict abortion laws.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/may/24/i-will-do-the-same-again-activists-continue-fight-against-poland-strict-abortion-laws


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: Reject New Curbs on Abortion, Sex Ed

Poland: Reject New Curbs on Abortion, Sex Ed
Don’t Manipulate Pandemic to Endanger Women, Adolescents

April 14, 2020
Human Rights Watch

(London) – Poland’s Parliament will consider regressive legislation this week that would restrict sexual and reproductive health and rights and put the lives and well-being of women and adolescents at risk, Human Rights Watch said today. The legislation is scheduled for reading on April 15 or 16, 2020 as the country remains under a COVID-19-related state of emergency that bans group gatherings.

The bills under consideration were originally introduced in March 2018 and October 2019, and have since been stalled or not moved forward under the Parliament elected in November 2019. Both were met by street protests.

Continued: https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/04/14/poland-reject-new-curbs-abortion-sex-ed


POLAND – The rapid degradation of the rule of law in Poland: what it means for women’s sexual and reproductive rights

POLAND – The rapid degradation of the rule of law in Poland: what it means for women’s sexual and reproductive rights

Nov 9, 2018
by International Campaign for Women's Right to Safe Abortion

All downhill from here. The rapid degradation of the rule of law in Poland: what it means for women’s sexual and reproductive rights, and LGBT+ persons’ rights

by International Federation for Human Rights, November 2018

This report is the result of several months of desk-based research, combined with an international fact-finding mission conducted by the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) in Poland, on LGBT+ persons and women’s sexual and reproductive rights in the context of the degradation of the rule of law these past three years. FIDH was able to conduct approximately 20 interviews, all in Warsaw, of a wide range of actors: civil society organisations, members of the Polish government, members of the Parliament, the office of the Prosecutor, the office of the Polish Commissioner for Human Rights, associations of professionals – lawyers, doctors, teachers – and national experts.

Continued: http://www.safeabortionwomensright.org/10992-2/


Poland’s abortion ban is a test case for the Catholic Church

Poland’s abortion ban is a test case for the Catholic Church
Religious conservatives across Europe will be watching the outcome closely

Agnieszka Graff
April 2, 2018

The crowd was an estimated 55,000 strong — most of the protesters were dressed in black, most of them were young women. They marched through central Warsaw on March 23 to protest against the parliament’s decision to proceed with an almost total ban on abortion.

It had all happened before, in October 2016 — one of this protest’s hashtags was #dejavue. But this time it felt different: angrier, darker, more politically radical, and openly aimed at the Catholic Church. The protests testify not just to the power of the Polish women’s movement, but to a profound change in attitudes. This time it is not just abortion rights that are at issue. Polish women have seen the broader picture.

Continued: https://www.ft.com/content/d3d92b9e-3348-11e8-b5bf-23cb17fd1498


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