Oct 23, 2020
Thousands of women are protesting against Poland's new abortion laws in cities across the country.
A court ruling on Thursday banned almost all abortions - with exceptions only for cases of rape, incest, or where the mother's health is at risk.
Meet the women across Europe who are resisting threats, both old and new, to reproductive rights in Poland.
Claudia Torrisi
28 September 2020
“It was the most incredible, amazing experience of my life,” the veteran women’s rights activist Mara Clarke told me. “It was totally insane. But also really wonderful. And proof that sisters and siblings can get shit done when they want to.”
In December 2019, three months before coronavirus was declared a global pandemic, a group of women from across Europe launched a bold, feminist response to Poland’s draconian anti-abortion laws: Abortion Without Borders.
Polish government honours pro-life activist who stopped teen having abortion by informing her family
May 18, 2020
Poland’s justice ministry has awarded an honour to a pro-life activist, Zuzanna Wiewiórka, who prevented a teenager from having an abortion by informing the girl’s parents about her plans. Some have criticised the award, saying that Wiewiórka violated the girl’s privacy and harassed her online.
On Friday, during a press conference broadcast with the title “Stop hate against defenders of life”, the ministry presented Wiewiórka with a medal for “merit in the field of justice”, reports Tok FM.
In Poland, Abortion Access Worsens Amid Pandemic
Abortions were already difficult to obtain and then came the coronavirus.
By Jessica Bateman, Marta Kasztelan
May 1, 2020
The woman was 21 weeks pregnant when she contacted Abortion Without Borders (AWB), a network of activist groups that advises Polish women on how to access safe terminations. Normally, it would have been relatively simple to book a flight to the United Kingdom, where she could legally access a second-trimester abortion. But the coronavirus outbreak changed everything.
“We got her an appointment, but travel was a different matter,” said Mara Clarke, the founder of Abortion Support Network (ASN), which is part of AWB and helps women obtain abortions overseas. Poland closed its borders and grounded all flights and cross-border public transportation on March 15, meaning the woman would have had to travel to the German border, cross it, and take a train to one of Berlin’s airports.
Continued: https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/05/01/poland-abortion-access-worsens-coronavirus-pandemic/
Indian Feminist Organizations Condemn Poland’s Draconian Abortion Law
April 20, 2020
Press Release
Standing in solidarity with all women for rights over their bodies, and to prioritize pro-choice abortion laws, organizations Haiyya, Asia Safe Abortion Partnership, Love Matters India and Feminism in India strongly condemn the ‘Stop Abortion’ bill discussed in Parliament of Poland amidst the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
The Parliament of Poland started discussions on the ‘Stop Abortion’ Bill on Wednesday 15th April stretched till Thursday 16th April. The parliament on Thursday has sent the Bill back to the parliamentary committee for further review, but has not rejected the Bill completely, and it has the chance of resurfacing.
Continued: https://feminisminindia.com/2020/04/20/indian-feminist-organizations-polands-abortion-law/
Abortion activists in Poland fret as coronavirus curbs access
Alicja Ptak, Reuters
March 21, 2020
WARSAW — Natalia Broniarczyk, an activist with a charity that assists Polish women who want to terminate pregnancies, says its hot line began ringing non-stop after the government announced border closures to stem the coronavirus outbreak last week.
Many callers were worried about their shipments of abortion pills, which are illegal in Poland, and others feared they would not be able to reach clinics abroad in time to have the procedure, which is unavailable in Poland in most cases.
How to Make Abortion Great Again
Poland has one of the most restrictive abortion laws in the European Union, and in practice, it's all but banned. But four women, nicknamed the "Abortion Dream Team," are pushing back, holding workshops around the country teaching women how to obtain and self-manage a medical abortion. With Roe v. Wade at risk of being overturned in the U.S., is their story a cautionary tale, or a possible roadmap for American women?
By Anna Louie Sussman
Nov 4, 2019
On a rainy day in May, in the Polish coastal city of Gdańsk, in a high-ceilinged room on the second floor of an unremarkable building, 16 women and five men sat in mismatched office chairs around a long table, waiting to learn how to administer a medical abortion. Before the workshop began in earnest, one of the speakers, Karolina Więckiewicz, turned to a bald, bearded man on her left, whose papers spread out in front of him suggested he might be from a prosecutor’s office, and asked him to stop recording.
Continued: https://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/features/a28690537/abortion-dream-team-poland/
Poland has some of the strictest abortion laws. This German NGO has a solution
Group members offer up their couches, help with translating and accompany the women to hospital, writes Dylan Brethour
Dylan Brethour
Sep 8, 2019
Across the globe, the rise of right-wing parties has stirred up the fight over abortion.
In Poland, which has some of the most restrictive laws in Europe, women can only get an abortion in cases of rape or incest, when the pregnancy poses a serious threat to a woman’s health, or when there is a severe foetal abnormality.
The Abortion Exodus - more Poles and Croats going abroad
By Michael Bird, Lina Vdovii and Blaz Zgaga
BRUSSELS, 16. Jul, 2019
"The fact that I had to terminate the second pregnancy was terribly sad," said Warsaw-based Anna, now 39.
She was in her tenth week, and her doctors advised her to take a test to check for chromosomal abnormality, which discovered Down's Syndrome.
Continued: https://euobserver.com/social/145450
Poland Is Trying to Make Abortion Dangerous, Illegal, and Impossible.
Ireland voted to liberalize abortion laws. The far-right government in Warsaw is moving in the opposite direction.
By Madeline Roache
January 8, 2019
Everyone knows someone who has had an abortion in Poland. But most of it happens underground.
Under Poland’s draconian abortion law—one of the strictest in the European Union—terminations are permitted only if there is a threat to the mother’s life, if there is a fetal abnormality, or when pregnancy has resulted from rape or incest.
Facebook
Google+
Twitter
LinkedIn