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All pregnancies must be completed. Even when the fetus is too damaged to live, women must give birth to the child.
On Friday night, protesters gathered in front of the home of party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski. The police received them with tear gas and a wall. Photo: Czarek Sokolowski, AP / NTB
– From now on, Polish women will live in hell. They are sentenced to torture, suffering and pain, reported Barbara Nowacka Twitter Thursday afternoon.
The opposition politician reacted to a recent ruling by the Constitutional Court. In practice, abortion is prohibited in Poland.
Although the fetus is so damaged that the baby dies immediately after birth, now women must carry the baby.
An example cited in the debate is when the fetus is missing half of the skull.
Poland is following in the footsteps of human rights giants such as El Salvador, Nicaragua and the Vatican, writes a commentator for the largest Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza.
In the city of Lodz, women protested wearing costumes from Gilead, Margaret Atwood’s horror world where women are nothing more than birthing machines. Photo: Marcin Stepien, Agencja Gazeta / REUTERS / NTB
“All children have the right to life”
In practice, abortion is now completely illegal in Poland, although formally there are still two exceptions. If the pregnancy is due to rape or if the mother’s health is in danger, you can apply.
But application processing often takes months. Therefore, the answer is finally paid.
To date, just over 1,000 legal abortions have been performed annually in Poland. Of these, 98 percent are due to deformed fetuses.
Polish President Andzrej Duda is satisfied with the verdict.
– Abortion for eugenic reasons should not be legal. I believe that all children have the right to life, he said.
Demonstrations continued in Poland on Saturday. Photo: Peter Pawlowski, Reuters / NTB
The pandemic prevents protests
The opposition and women activists express anger and despair on social media. They have mobilized for gigantic demonstrations in several rounds to avoid the abortion ban.
Now the pandemic makes mass mobilization impossible. Many believe that this is precisely why this case is being pursued now. It was debated in parliament in April. Even then, the pandemic made protests impossible.
A few hundred gathered Friday night in front of the residence of powerful Deputy Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski. He leads the ruling Law and Justice Party (PiS).
They came across a wall of police, pepper spray and tear gas.
He wants everyone to be baptized and buried
Kaczynski said in an interview in 2016 that he would ensure that even “very difficult pregnancies in which the child is sentenced to death and severely deformed” end at birth. Then the child can be baptized, buried and given a name.
PiS came to power in 2015. Since then, among other things, it has implemented reforms of the judicial system. These reforms have received much criticism, also from Norway. Among other things, they give the government political control over the courts.
Most of the judges of the Constitutional Court have been appointed by PiS. The head of the court, Julia Przylebska, is a close friend of Kaczynski. Only two of the judges voted against yesterday’s verdict.
– It puts life and health at risk
Several international organizations react strongly in a press release.
– Today’s verdict endangers the health and lives of Polish women, says Leah Hoctor of the Center for Reproductive Rights.
“The verdict is the result of a coordinated wave of attacks on women’s human rights by Polish legislators,” said Esther Major of Amnesty International.
Poland’s Justice Minister has threatened to withdraw the country from the Istanbul Convention. The purpose of the convention is to protect women from violence.
Women’s rights under pressure in various places
On Thursday, the United States signed an international declaration against abortion. Brazil, Uganda and Saudi Arabia are among the 30 countries that have joined the Geneva Consensus Declaration, writes The Guardian.
In Europe, only Belarus, Hungary and Poland have signed. But here too the pressure increases.
In eight countries, support for free abortion is lower than it was five years ago, Euronews writes. In any case, more than 70 percent of Europeans still believe that abortion should be allowed.
Also in neighboring Poland’s Slovakia, conservatives this week tried to make abortion more difficult. But there the women’s movement applauded. One bill was rejected by a majority of one vote in parliament.
Travel abroad
Slovakia is one of the countries where Polish women travel to have an abortion. According to the BBC, 100,000 Polish women seek help abroad every year. The corona pandemic has made it more difficult.
Polish activists distribute contact information to organizations that want to help. Women can get help for an abortion abroad or to get pills the next day.
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