This month the black scenario has just happened to Polish women. On Thursday last week, the provision permitting abortion in the event of a high probability of severe and irreversible fetal impairment or an incurable life-threatening disease was ruled by the Constitutional Court as inconsistent with the constitution.
It has not been in my plans, neither it was for Berna – the other co-blogger of No Cap that currently lives in Poland, to write about this shocking move of Polish Government. It is however, so much concerning that we cannot just stay without commenting the current situation in Poland. We haven’t even discussed the change in our plans for the topic of new blogs, but obviously we both got really agitated and perturbed.
I am deeply amused that in the 21st century, in Central Europe, the government based on religious prejudice can take away the basic human right to choose and put us back to the Middle Ages. Unfortunately, once again we, Polish women, have to fight for our health, safety and dignity. My government would like a women to die in childbirth and leave an orphaned child. If you are raped, you have no choice but to give birth to the rapist’s child. You are also forced to carry a baby for 9 months, knowing that it will die right after giving birth or will be irreversibly handicapped, and I am not even talking about down-syndrome but much worse anomalies. The worst part is that the interest of the State and the Church begins with conception and ends with birth. There are no proper policies nor government support that would help families with disabled children to the extent it is actually needed.
I can’t understand how someone who has never given birth can decide what happens to our uteruses during pregnancy.
says Ewa Kwiatkowska while preparing for the protest in southwest Poland about Jaroslaw Kaczynski, who is thought to be politically responsible for the court’s decision.
Now, as Berna has already highlighted in her blog post “Protests against abortion ruling in Poland; will online activism meet offline” – the Social Media became particularly important in uniting women, informing about the response of affected society or indicating the time and place of organized happenings. Especially that ever since the right wing parties came to power in Poland, the public media, mainly in news and journalistic programs, gave up presenting independent perspectives, different points of view, cultural orientations, in other words showing the social and political reality in all its complexity.
However, of course there are still many questions about the sincerity of social media activism, and how to distinguish the truthful information.
Yesterday for instance, the nonprofit organization called Ogólnopolski Strajk Kobiet (National Women’s Strike) initiated the “Word for Sunday” campaign, consisting in demonstrating posters with protest slogans in front of or in churches. That by the way, I must admit, even for me was a surprise, as I never expected that it can happen in one of the most religious countries in Europe (92.9% of population identified as Catholics).
A member of the House of Parliament Joanna Scheuring-Wielgus and her husband joined this nationwide protest and appeared in the church of St. James in Toruń. She protested with the banner “Woman! You can decide for yourself”. Her husband supported her, holding a banner with the slogan: “Women should have the right to decide whether to give birth or not. And not a state based on Catholic ideology “. The picture initially shared by the envoy on her social media circulated around internet, and was questioned by many if this was a real photo or a manipulated one.
At the moment the manifestations against the ruling of the Constitutional Tribunal to tighten the anti-abortion law are underway in over 60 Polish cities. Despite the ban on numerous gatherings, thousands of people took over the streets, and on Wednesday women will not go to work.
What makes me wonder however, is the real reason behind so controversial government decision. Is it ultimate pressure from Catholic church in Poland, which is known as very influential in political arena or is it the political agenda that needs to be urgently fulfilled before new elections, which might not be in favor of the current government. Or maybe, it is a political game initiated in order to cover up the inability to control pandemic situation related to Covid-19, so that society focus the attention on a different topic…
#pieklokobiet (womens hell)
References:
http://strajkkobiet.eu/co-robimy/
Pierwsze protesty w toruńskich kościołach. „Słowo na niedzielę” u św. Jakuba
