By ANDREW RETTMAN
BRUSSELS, 26. NOV, 2020
The European Commission has urged Poland not to abandon a treaty against domestic violence, as Warsaw continues to drift further from EU norms.
"The Istanbul Convention is the gold standard in terms of policy in this area," equality commissioner Helena Dalli said in the European Parliament in Brussels on Wednesday (25 November), referring to a 2011 international treaty.
Continued: https://euobserver.com/justice/150197
European Parliament urges Warsaw to ‘refrain from any further attempts’ to restrict women’s sexual and reproductive health rights.
BY MAÏA DE LA BAUME
November 26, 2020
The European Parliament on Thursday overwhelmingly adopted a resolution that "strongly condemns" Poland's recent tightening of abortion rules and urges the government to "refrain from any further attempts" to restrict women's sexual and reproductive health rights.
A total of 455 MEPs voted in favor of the resolution (with 145 against) "on the de-facto ban on the right to abortion in Poland," weeks after millions of protesters took to the streets to protest a ruling from the country’s Constitutional Tribunal that abortions for reasons of fetal abnormality violate the Polish constitution.
Continued: https://www.politico.eu/article/meps-adopt-resolution-condemning-polands-abortion-bill/
By Michael Daventry
25/11/2020
In October, Poland became the only European Union country to remove a right to legal abortion from its citizens.
The country’s top court ruled on October 22 that it was unconstitutional to abort a foetus if it had congenital defects.
By Euronews
25/11/2020
A majority of European lawmakers who took part in a debate on abortion rights in Poland expressed solidarity with protesters, vowing to "join them in this battle till the very end".
MEPs debated Polish abortion rights on Wednesday afternoon and will vote on a resolution on Thursday.
NOVEMBER 24, 2020
A referendum on the right to abortion would not have any legal implications, a spokesman for the Polish government said on Tuesday.
Speaking to TVP1, a public television channel, Piotr Mueller said that a "classic referendum," as described in the constitution, "would not have any binding force because it would not change the constitution."
The supermodel and prolific Vogue cover star shares a powerful letter on the realities surrounding abortion rights in her home country, and her hopes for an inclusive future for the LGBTQIA+ community.
BY ANJA RUBIK
23 NOVEMBER 2020
In 2020, our Poland is a divided country, and as a Polish woman, I have grave fears. Church and state have merged, giving birth to conflict and contradiction. A woman’s right to choose is under siege, the LGBTQIA+ community is treated like second-class citizens, and sex education is being phased out.
Poland has the strictest abortion legislation in the EU. Abortion is illegal with three exceptions [in cases of rape, incest or where there’s a threat to the mother’s life], and these exceptions are being slowly erased. This will affect not just our women, but our entire community. On 22 October, the Constitutional Court outlawed abortion in the case of severe and irreversible foetal impairment.
Continued: https://www.vogue.co.uk/arts-and-lifestyle/article/anja-rubik-abortion-poland
By Reuters Staff
NOVEMBER 23, 2020
WARSAW (Reuters) - Police scuffled with protesters who gathered in front of Poland’s Education Ministry on Monday following a ruling that tightened restrictions on abortion rights in the Catholic country.
Hundreds of thousands have taken to the streets since the Constitutional Tribunal ruled on Oct. 22 to further limit already restrictive abortion rules, the latest phase of a battle between liberals and religious conservatives in Poland.
NOVEMBER 19, 2020
Seventy percent of Poles support the ongoing mass street demonstrations against the top court ruling which would see almost all abortions made illegal in Poland, a recent survey by the Kantar pollster shows.
The protests have been ongoing since October 22 when a ruling by the Constitutional Tribunal halted pregnancy terminations for foetal abnormalities, one of the few legal grounds left for abortion in the country. Under enormous pressure, the Polish government has delayed implementation of the controversial ruling.
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/
Poland's protests can be a rallying cry for a new feminist internationalism that demands and wins public services for care, social housing, universal health care, and wage justice.
11.13.2020
BY TITHI BHATTACHARYA VARSHA
GANDIKOTA-NELLUTLA TESSY SCHLOSSER
In Polish director Marta Górnicka’s revolutionary production, “The Chorus of
Women,” twenty-five women appear on stage, whispering, singing, and yelling in
haunting tones, “be beautiful,” “be quiet” — “be a woman.” The trilogy sees the
choir scream and gasp against chants of the Bacchae and the gospels, and in one
play, utter the hoarse, final words — “I’m calling out to you.”
Gornicka’s chorus is echoed on the streets of Warsaw today. Tens of thousands
of women are in open revolt against Poland’s new abortion ban. Their slogan of
choice, “Wypierdalać” translates to “get the fuck out of here.” “[N]ow we are
mad, not just unhappy,” wrote feminist philosopher Ewa Majewska, echoing the
protesters, “I am terrified;” “I feel unimportant.” Their signs read: “women’s
hell.”
Continued: https://jacobinmag.com/2020/11/abortion-poland-law-international-womens-strike-labor
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