Poland’s tradition of concern after three years of abortion ‘ban’

Within the hospital, as a substitute of an examination, she confronted an interrogation from the police. She was requested to undress, do squats and cough, she instructed Polish media Fakty TVN.

Police seized her cellphone and her laptop to find out whether or not her being pregnant termination had been assisted by anyone else — against the law underneath the Polish felony court docket punishable by as much as three years in jail.

Joanna’s case sparked protests on 25 July in entrance of police stations in Cracow, Warsaw and different cities — recalling the mass rallies throughout the nation in 2020, when Poland imposed its near-total ban on abortion.

As circumstances of ladies dying because of being pregnant problems have come to gentle, Polish girls are at this time nonetheless demanding entry to protected abortion — with concern and anger ever current.

Based on media reviews, at the least seven girls in Poland have died since 2020 because of lack of entry to a protected and authorized abortion.

These protests have additionally been echoed within the EU capital, Brussels.

On Worldwide Protected Abortion Day (Thursday, 28 September), dozens of individuals gathered in entrance of the European Parliament calling for solidarity amongst member states to ship a message that limiting entry to abortion is neither democratic nor in accordance with the rule of regulation.

Placards with messages reminiscent of “My Physique, My Selection”, “Abortion Rights Are Human Rights” or “The Proper Of The Youngster To Be Needed With out Impositions” had been raised excessive in Place du Luxembourg.

Backlash towards girls’s rights

“The image is obvious,” Polish MEP Robert Biedrón (S&D) instructed EUobserver. “We face a powerful backlash [against] girls’s rights with a really robust anti-gender motion”.

“Girls [in Poland] have fewer rights than in 2004 once we entered the EU,” Biedrón continued. “It is a very disappointing scenario for tens of millions of ladies and men who had been hoping that whereas becoming a member of the EU, the EU would broaden the human rights perspective”.

Furthermore, the overwhelming majority of Poles (88 %) don’t agree with the choice by Poland’s Constitutional Court docket limiting girls’s rights to abortion, based on an opinion ballot printed by Federa on World Protected Abortion Day and forward of the nation’s crunch election on 15 October.

Donald Tusk’s Civic Coalition (Koalicja Obywatelska) and the Left (Lewica) are the one events which have promised to introduce the choice to terminate a being pregnant within the first trimester, in the event that they win subsequent month’s election.

Nevertheless, the rightwing Catholic ruling Regulation and Justice (PiS) get together is predicted to be victorious once more, as polls point out they’re at present on about 38 %.

Prosecution

At this time, a lady in Poland has simply 12 weeks to terminate a being pregnant and might solely achieve this in two circumstances: if she’s raped or if her life is endangered.

As well as, there are being pregnant registries, the place the federal government and prosecutors can see all pregnancies by way of to completion.

“In follow, docs, not wanting to reveal themselves to felony legal responsibility for terminating a being pregnant outdoors of conditions underneath the regulation, are afraid to take motion and, for instance, look ahead to the foetus to die with a purpose to terminate it, though this places the ladies’s life in danger,” Federa instructed EUobserver.

“A sure tradition of concern has been created within the nation, firstly stopping girls from accessing authorized and protected abortion, and secondly criminalising the companies of abortion suppliers,” Amnesty Worldwide campaigner Lana van Langendonck stated.

Human rights defenders themselves are additionally focused in Poland. “Our intercourse educators have been vilified up to now and our activists have obtained threats, together with loss of life threats,” Federa stated.

‘Second class residents’

The EU doesn’t have a say over sexual and reproductive rights, together with abortion, since well being insurance policies are the competence of member states.

Nevertheless, granting entry to abortion throughout the EU has been a topic of ongoing debate and dialogue for years.

Final 12 months, the parliament permitted a decision calling on EU nations to incorporate the best to authorized and protected abortion within the EU Constitution of Elementary Rights — following French president Emmanuel Macron’s pledges to open such a debate within the EU Council.

Nonetheless, it’s extensively anticipated that any such proposal isn’t going to materialise any time quickly.

“We now have a typical for the standard of water, roaming, and charger, however in 2023, we do not have a typical for ladies’s rights, come on!,” Biedrón lamented. “Girls shouldn’t be handled as second-class residents”.

Malta is the only real member state within the EU the place abortion is totally prohibited. Nevertheless, analysis has reveals that many ladies journey to hunt abortion care overseas. Information collected within the Netherlands reveals that just about 3,000 girls travelled there in 2014 to get an abortion, primarily from France, Germany and Belgium.

“That is very restrictive by way of who can afford to journey with a purpose to get an abortion,” Stephanie Rary, member of the ladies’s rights part of the Belgian commerce union FGTB, instructed EUobserver.

However many EU states produce other authorized limitations to abortion, reminiscent of obligatory counselling or ready durations.

Necessary counselling has been a difficulty in nations like Germany because it postpones a course of which is linked to the gestational age restrict, obliging girls to seek out counsellors and make appointments.

As well as, girls throughout the EU additionally face monetary limitations and issues in accessing info in lots of nations the place abortion is definitely authorized.

Solidarity

Concurrently, Hungary and Poland are the one nations within the EU the place the morning-after capsule is barely obtainable underneath medical prescription.

However what else can the EU do to enhance the scenario?

Biedrón lists three key factors: together with reproductive and sexual rights within the EU’s well being technique, strengthening transnational solidarity and standardising girls’s rights.

Federa provides that in addition they have “excessive hopes” for the event of telemedicine within the EU, which might give Polish girls entry to the capsule.

Together with these rights within the European technique can be seen as a sign to the member states, which have competence on this space, that these rights (together with abortion) must be accessible to all individuals, Biedrón stated.

As for transnational solidarity, in Belgium, for instance, there’s a group (Abortion With out Borders) for Polish girls to return to the nation for a protected and authorized abortion. It additionally offeres monetary assist for many who want it.