Poland’s fight for abortion has opened wounds in the country’s society

Katarzyna, who was already ready to make a backup plan to see a doctor in Germany, finally had an abortion, but told herself that she would never try to get pregnant again.

“I knew how difficult it would be to register for a legal abortion procedure in Poland, but I am stubborn,” says a woman who lives in a small town in central Poland and is already raising two daughters, one of whom is disabled.

“I don’t think I can ever experience such a sense of despair when the medical community hates you if something goes wrong again,” adds Katarzyna, who is reluctant to publish her name because abortion is still taboo in Poland.

Trying to reach it through the Constitutional Court

These abortions are now a hot topic of debate in Catholic Poland. The culmination is expected on Thursday, when the Constitutional Court should announce whether abortions can be allowed, even when it is clear that the baby will not survive.

Many doctors in Poland, where abortion laws are already among the strictest in Europe, already exercise their right to refuse abortion on religious grounds. It’s true that some doctors admit to feeling pressure from management, and this is where politics begins.

Many members of the ruling Law and Justice Party (PiS), including its leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski, believe that abortion when requested for fetal malformations should be prohibited.

It should be possible to terminate a pregnancy only because of incest, rape, or a threat to a woman’s health or life. Abortion is simply prohibited in Poland and therefore it is prohibited.

A group of conservatives in the Polish Sejm has already formally appealed to the Court, whose mission is to assess whether the laws are unconstitutional, to provide an assessment of the legality of malformed fruit abortion.

It is true that the PiS-dominated government appears to be reluctant to impose further restrictions through the Seimas so far, as previous discussions on the issue have sparked many stormy reactions in society.

Instead, go the way of the Constitutional Court. Although PiS denies this, the rulers have already carried out a series of judicial reforms that have politicized key legal institutions in Poland. The European Commission has long talked about the threat to the independence of the judiciary.

A group of conservatives from Seimas has already formally appealed to the Court, whose mission is to evaluate whether the laws are unconstitutional, with a request to present an evaluation of the legality of abortion of malformed fruits.

“Abortion has always been a difficult issue for parliament, it arouses a lot of public emotions. I thought I needed to find another place to resolve constitutional disputes over the right to live,” said PiS deputy Bartlomiejus Wroblewski.

Travel to neighboring countries

PiS denies having tried to influence Constitutional Court decisions, but both the opposition and several other EU countries claim that the rulers are aware of democratic norms. PiS ensures that the reforms will lead to more efficient and fair judicial work.

“PiS does not want to take responsibility for toughening abortion laws. Governors are well aware that it is also difficult for the public to accept the current regime.

We want to ban abortion with the help of the Court, but it is politicized, it employs illegally appointed judges, ”says left-wing legislator Barbara Nowacka.

A more aggressive approach to abortion would likely help PiS mobilize more conservative voters, but in general, voters are not sympathetic to such initiatives. At the end of last year, a poll showed only 15 percent. The Poles are in favor of toughening the laws on abortion.

According to the state, about a thousand are legally performed in Poland each year. abortions, mainly due to fetal malformations.

However, women’s rights activists claim that thousands more women are terminating their pregnancies illegally or traveling abroad. Very often, to neighboring Germany, the Czech Republic or Slovakia, where the law is much more liberal.

Katarzyna was already attractive in Germany. A girlfriend found him a German doctor who volunteers to help Polish women, but an abortion was finally given the green light in Poland itself.

Katarzyna claims that she wanted to protect her daughters from a shock that would undoubtedly have come after the loss of a sick baby.

“If it weren’t for the coronavirus, I would not have prayed for an abortion in Poland. I would have traveled abroad. The psychological strain was enormous,” says the woman.