Abortion in Poland

Abortion in Poland is illegal except in cases of rape, when the woman's life or any form of health is in jeopardy, or if the fetus is irreparably damaged.[1][2] In 2016, with proposed legislation to completely outlaw abortion, 30,000 women went on strike and marched in cities across the country to protest their further loss of reproductive rights, leading high-ranking politicians to distance themselves from the proposed law.[3] Just three days after the strike, lawmakers voted against the new law.[4]

Poland is one of the few countries in the world to outlaw abortion after decades of liberal legislation (during Communist rule). Polish women often seek abortion in neighboring countries due to the strict restraints in their own country.[3]

Poland has one of the most restrictive abortion laws in Europe, along with of group of other traditionally Catholic countries of the region (Malta, San Marino, Liechtenstein, Vatican, Monaco, Andorra, and Ireland - the latter being in the process of changing its laws).[5]

In Poland, abortion is banned except in the following three circumstances.[6]

  1. When the woman's life or health is endangered by the continuation of pregnancy,
  2. When the pregnancy is a result of a criminal act, or
  3. When the fetus is seriously malformed

Unlike in other countries where abortion is banned, women in Poland are not subject to a penalty for illegal termination of pregnancy. Consent of a physician is required for circumstances (1) and (3) above, while abortions in view of circumstance (2) above must be certified by prosecutor. Parental consent is always required if the woman seeking abortion is a minor.[7]

In addition, persuading a woman to carry out illegal termination of her pregnancy is a criminal act.

History

Until 1932, abortion was banned in Poland without exceptions. In that year, the new Penal Code legalised abortion only when there were medical reasons and, for the first time in Europe, when the pregnancy resulted from a criminal act.[8] Except during the German occupation during the Second World War, this law was in effect from 1932 to 1956. In Nazi Germany, which included territories of Poland 1939-1945, the penalties for abortion were increased, especially for providing an abortion to an "Aryan" woman. Abortion was permitted if the foetus was deformed or disabled. In 1956 the Sejm legalised abortion in cases where the woman was experiencing "difficult living conditions". The interpretation of the change in the law varied from a restrictive interpretation, in the late 1950s, to one in where abortion was allowed on request, in the 1960s and 1970s. It was not uncommon that women from countries where abortions were restricted, such as Sweden, travelled to Poland to carry out abortions which were accessible and affordable there.[9]

The procedural requirements needed for obtaining a legal abortion were changed several times over the years, in 1956, 1959, 1969, 1981 and 1990. The most important change was that of 1990, after the end of Communist rule, when Ordinance of 30 April 1990 made access to abortion more difficult. A major change came in 1993, when the law was further tightened, removing entirely the "difficult living conditions" as a ground for abortions. As such, abortions could be legally obtained only in cases of serious threat to the life or health of the pregnant woman, as attested by two physicians, cases of rape or incest confirmed by a prosecutor, and cases in which prenatal tests, confirmed by two physicians, demonstrated that the foetus was seriously and irreversibly damaged. This law remains in place today.[10]

Modern debate

Poland is a country strongly influenced by Roman Catholicism, and religion often influences politics and social views. Abortion is a controversial topic in Polish politics. The question of an anti-abortion constitutional amendment was one of the reasons for the split in the Law and Justice (PiS) party and the creation of Prawica Rzeczypospolitej, led by Marek Jurek.

Law and Justice, abbreviated to PiS, is a national-conservative,[11][12] and Christian democratic[13][14] political party in Poland. With 237 seats in the Sejm and 66 in the Senate, it is currently the largest party in the Polish parliament.

In June 2011, Polish pro-life NGOs collected over 500,000 signatures for a proposed bill to ban abortion in Poland altogether. The bill, while rejected by a majority of the MPs, got enough support to be sent to a Sejm committee in order to be subject to further amendments. The move was criticised by two right-wing opposition parties, Law and Justice and Poland Comes First, which expressed their support for the bill. The left-wing Democratic Left Alliance pursues a pro-choice policy and was against the bill. The ruling Civic Platform, while considering itself in favour of the current legislation on abortion in Poland, was divided on the matter; more than 60 of the party's MPs voted in favour of the bill.[15]

Proposed abortion ban

In September 2015, a civil initiative to introduce a complete ban on abortion was rejected in Sejm. 178 of MPs backed the measure, while 206 voted against.[16]

In April 2016, Polish organizations proposed amended legislation to ban abortion in all cases except to save the woman's life.[17] The bill included penalties to abortion providers with up to five years of imprisonment.[18] The bill passed and was debated in Sejm, beginning 22 September 2016. The Sejm voted with majority in favour of continuing work on the bill.[19] A competing bill, proposing liberalisation of abortion laws and also supported by a civil initiative that succeeded in gathering the required number of signatures, was rejected outright in the same session of Sejm.[19] If the law had passed, Poland's abortion restrictions would have mirrored those of Malta and the Vatican, the two countries in Europe with the harshest restrictions on abortion.[20]

Black Protest

Agnieszka Dziemianowicz-Bąk of the Razem National Board during the 2016 protests against a total ban on abortion

On 22 September 2016, on the day when the bill to ban abortion was debated in Sejm, the Razem party organized a demonstration called "Czarny Protest" ("Black Protest"), initiated by party member Małgorzata Adamczyk. This was part of a larger campaign, in which people published selfies in black clothing in social media, tagged #czarnyprotest (#blackprotest).[21] In the subsequent days, similar protests were being organized in other Polish cities, such as Wrocław, Łódź and Kraków. Thousands of people took part in the protests in various parts of Poland.[22][23] On 1 October 2016, a large protest also took place near the Sejm building, organized by Barbara Nowacka of Inicjatywa Polska, who had collected signatures under a citizens' bill to liberalize the Polish abortion law.[24]

On 3 October 2016, thousands of Polish women went on strike to oppose the proposed legislation for a total ban on abortion, called "Czarny Poniedziałek" ("Black Monday"), originally proposed in a Facebook post by Polish actress Krystyna Janda.[20][25] The women modeled their strike on the successful strike for women's rights in Iceland in 1975, refusing to attend school, work, or participate in domestic chores.[20] The pro abortion protesters marched in Warsaw, Gdańsk, Łódź, Wrocław, and Kraków, and demonstrators across Europe marched in solidarity.[2] Approximately 98,000 protestors showed up to decry the new bill.[3][26] Supporters of the new legislation held counterprotests and Catholic Masses to express alignment with the abortion ban.[2]

By 5 October 2016, politicians were distancing themselves from the proposed legislation.[3] On 6 October, lawmakers voted the bill down with plans to present a counterproposal from the government.[27]

In 2016, Foreign Policy magazine included Agnieszka Dziemianowicz-Bąk of the Razem party and Barbara Nowacka of Inicjatywa Polska, on its annual list of the 100 most influential global thinkers for their role in organizing protests against a total ban on abortion in Poland.[28] In 2018, Forbes magazine included Marcelina Zawisza on its annual European Forbes 30 Under 30 list in the "Law & Policy" category for her role as a co-founder of Razem and one of the organizers of "black protest".[29]

This protest inspired a similar event in Ireland, Strike 4 Repeal, to repeal the Ireland's Eight Amendment which bans abortion in nearly all cases.[30]

Public opinion

Belief that abortion is appropriate (2014 poll)[31]

  Inappropriate (65%)
  Appropriate (27%)
  Don't Know (8%)

Support for abortion on request (2014 poll)[32]

  Oppose (55%)
  Support (37%)
  Neutral (8%)

In the latest poll on abortion by the CBOS Public Opinion Research Center, 69% of Poles view abortion as immoral and unacceptable, 14% of Poles are ambivalent towards it and 14% view it as acceptable. Half of Poles oppose the right to abortion, but only one in seven (14%) supports the complete ban of all abortions, while more than one-third (36%) believe there should be exceptions. At the same time, almost half (45%) think that abortion should be permitted. In this group, 7% support abortion without restrictions, and 38% would like to see some restrictions to abortion rights.

Surveys indicate a conservative turn in the 1990s. Although the supporters of legal abortion prevailed, the difference continuously narrowed. In 2006, when the discussion about introducing a constitutional ban on abortion was publicly conducted, the opponents of legal abortion were for the first time more numerous than supporters of abortion rights. At present the proportions have returned to 2007 levels, when both groups were about equal in size.

Most Poles accept abortion in cases when it is legal under current law. The support for abortion rights when mother's life is in danger is almost universal (87%). Over three-quarters of respondents think that it should be available for women whose pregnancy threatens their health (78%), or was caused by rape or incest (78%). Three-fifths (60%) support the right to abortion if it is known that the child would be handicapped.

The support for legal abortion in cases when it is currently banned is much lower. About a quarter think that it should be legal if the woman is in a difficult material (26%) or personal (23%) situation. Almost one in five respondents (18%) think abortion should be legal if a woman does not want to have a child.[33]

A poll from 2013 showed that 49% of Poles support current legislation on abortion, 34% think it should be liberalised and 9% think it should be more restrictive.[34]

A CBOS poll from 2013 found that 75% of Poles think abortion is "always wrong and can never be justified". Only 7% thought there was "nothing wrong with it and could always be justified".[35]

A CBOS poll from February 2014 found that a majority (65%) found abortion morally inappropriate and only 27% found it appropriate, a drop of 4% in comparison to a 2009 poll.[31]

A CBOS poll from November 2014 found that a majority (55%) of Poles oppose abortion on request, with only 37% supporting it. Furthermore, 71% of Poles believe that abortion on request is inappropriate, with 20% thinking it is appropriate.[32]

In a Pew Research poll from 2017, 8% of Polish respondents believed abortion should be legal in all cases and 33% that it should be legal in most cases. On the other hand, 38% believed that it should be illegal in most cases and 13% that it should be illegal in all cases.[36]

Statistics

In Poland, the vast majority of abortions takes place illegally, as obtaining a legal abortion is very difficult, both due to the restrictive legal grounds and because of many doctors refusing to perform lawful abortions due to being conscientious objectors.[37] Estimates of illegal abortions per year put the numbers between 10,000 and 150,000, compared to only 1,000 - 2,000 legal abortions.[38][39]

A more recent study even estimated that between 80,000 and 200,000 Polish women terminate their pregnancies each year, with 10 to 15% of them estimated to seek their abortion abroad.[40] For those women going abroad, Germany, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic are among the more popular destinations for abortions, with the UK, Austria, and Ukraine other countries women travel to for abortions.[41][42] Despite the strict legislation and the conservative political discourse, Poland has one of the lowest fertility rate in Europe.[43]

See also

References

  1. ↑ https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2018/01/poland-nationwide-protests-against-further-restrictions-to-abortion/
  2. 1 2 3 "Polish Women Hold 'Black Monday' Strike To Protest Proposed Abortion Ban". Retrieved 2016-10-05.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Davies, Christian (2016-10-05). "Polish government signals U-turn on total abortion ban". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2016-10-05.
  4. ↑ "Polish women hail victory in abortion standoff and seek more". The Big Story. Retrieved 2016-10-06.
  5. ↑ https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/articles/2018-05-24/these-countries-in-europe-have-the-strictest-abortion-laws
  6. ↑ Abortion Policies: A Global Review. United Nations Publications. 2002. ISBN 92-1-151365-0.
  7. ↑ "BBC News - Europe's abortion rules". news.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 2016-10-06.
  8. ↑ "Republika.pl Portal Społeczności Internetowych" (PDF). Przestepczosczorganizowana.republika.pl. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-05-30. Retrieved 2012-11-06.
  9. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2010-08-30. Retrieved 2015-05-01.
  10. ↑ https://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/abortion/doc/poland.doc.
  11. ↑ Hloušek, Vít; Kopeček, Lubomír (2010), Origin, Ideology and Transformation of Political Parties: East-Central and Western Europe Compared, Ashgate, p. 196
  12. ↑ Nodsieck, Wolfram, "Poland", Parties and Elections in Europe, retrieved 28 March 2012
  13. ↑ Dominik Hierlemann, ed. (2005). Lobbying der katholischen Kirche: Das Einflussnetz des Klerus in Polen. Springer-Verlag. p. 131. ISBN 978-3531146607.
  14. ↑ "Unentschlossene als Zünglein an der Waage". News ORF. Retrieved 24 May 2015.
  15. ↑ "Poland Moves One Step Closer to Passing Abortion Law". Retrieved 19 July 2017.
  16. ↑ "Sejm rejects citizens' initiative to ban abortion". WBJ. Retrieved 2016-10-06.
  17. ↑ "No exceptions". The Economist. 2016-04-16. ISSN 0013-0613. Retrieved 2016-10-05.
  18. ↑ "Why would Poland make its already strict abortion law draconian?". Washington Post. Retrieved 2016-10-05.
  19. 1 2 "Polnisches Parlament will Abtreibungen komplett verbieten". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 2016-10-06.
  20. 1 2 3 "Black Monday: Polish women strike against abortion ban". BBC News. 2016-10-03. Retrieved 2016-10-05.
  21. ↑ PTWP. "Zaostrzenie prawa aborcyjnego? Czarny protest Partii Razem - sejm-rząd Wydarzenia". www.parlamentarny.pl. Retrieved 19 July 2017.
  22. ↑ "#CzarnyProtest we Wrocławiu". 25 September 2016. Retrieved 19 July 2017.
  23. ↑ Makarewicz, Nicole. "Czarny protest na Rynku Głównym w Krakowie. "Piekło kobiet trwa" [ZDJĘCIA, WIDEO]". Retrieved 19 July 2017.
  24. ↑ "Czarny protest przed Sejmem". Retrieved 19 July 2017.
  25. ↑ "Janda wezwała kobiety do strajku i się zaczęło. Dziesiątki tysięcy osób skrzykują się na Facebooku". Retrieved 19 July 2017.
  26. ↑ Polska, Grupa Wirtualna (4 October 2016). ""Czarny protest". Manifestacje w wielu miastach w Polsce. Ile osób wzięło udział w demonstracjach?". Retrieved 19 July 2017.
  27. ↑ "Polnisches Parlament kippt völliges Abtreibungsverbot". Die Presse. 6 October 2016. Retrieved 19 July 2017.
  28. ↑ "Foreign Policy's Annual List of the 100 Top Global Thinkers". Foreign Policy. Retrieved 2016-12-12.
  29. ↑ "Marcelina Zawisza". Forbes. 2018-01-22. Retrieved 2018-01-22.
  30. ↑ Edwards, Elaine; Flaherty, Rachel (8 March 2017). "Thousands march against Eighth Amendment in Dublin". The Irish Times.
  31. 1 2 Rafał Boguszewski (February 2014). "RELIGIJNOŚĆ A ZASADY MORALNE" (PDF) (in Polish). CBOS. Retrieved 6 July 2015.
  32. 1 2 Natalia Hipsz (November 2014). "PRAWO A MORALNOŚĆ – OPINIE O ZACHOWANIACH KONTROWERSYJNYCH SPOŁECZNIE" (PDF) (in Polish). CBOS. Retrieved 6 July 2015.
  33. ↑ http://www.cbos.pl/PL/publikacje/public_opinion/2010/07_2010.pdf
  34. ↑ INTERIA.PL. "CBOS: Większość Polaków popiera obecne prawo dotyczące aborcji". Retrieved 19 July 2017.
  35. ↑ Rafał Boguszewski (August 2013). "Wartości i normy" (PDF) (in Polish). CBOS. Retrieved 6 July 2015.
  36. ↑ http://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/11/2017/05/09154356/Central-and-Eastern-Europe-Topline_FINAL-FOR-PUBLICATION.pdf
  37. ↑ https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2016/10/06/world/europe/ap-eu-poland-abortion.html?_r=0
  38. ↑ "Poland's tussle over abortion ban". 6 October 2016. Retrieved 19 July 2017 – via www.bbc.com.
  39. ↑ "Stop this crackdown on abortion in Poland". 21 September 2016. Retrieved 19 July 2017 – via The Guardian.
  40. ↑ "Polish Abortion Tourism" (PDF). 6 October 2016. Retrieved 10 December 2017.
  41. ↑ "As Poland mulls new abortion bill, women head to Germany". Retrieved 23 March 2018.
  42. ↑ "How Poland's far-right government is pushing abortion underground". 6 October 2016. Retrieved 30 November 2017.
  43. ↑ http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/tgm/table.do?tab=table&init=1&language=en&pcode=tps00199&plugin=1
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.