I have been planning to cover another topic for this blogpost; however, continuous honks, throttles and chanting coming from the streets made it impossible for me to not talk about the latest protests against abortion law in Poland in all conscience.
What happened is that Poland’s top court has ruled on 22nd of October that abortions in cases of foetal defects are unconstitutional.
Poland which already had one of the EU’s strictest abortion laws, with this decision delivered a big blow to women’s rights. The decision means a near-total ban on abortion.
I first heard and saw the protests in Gdynia, which is a small city on the Baltic coast of Poland, yesterday evening. I live in a pretty central location in the city so it made it easier to follow if there are protests as they tend to realize on the centre or nearby.
Indeed, when I was just about to start writing my blogpost, honks and shouts coming from my doorstep have increased, tempting me to look from my window. Then, eventually it came to a point that I was already unfocused to continue writing with an urge to become part it.
Call it journalistic instincts or wish to be part of defending a deserving cause, as a resident in Poland, I felt somehow obliged to show my support and discover what’s going on in the streets.
Anyways, the crowd was moving fast and they already became invisible the time me and my husband was about to leave the flat. Thus, as a frequent user of social media, I thought the sensible thing to do was to check events on Facebook which might have been created on purpose to organize the protests.
Voila! There it was: #WyrokNaKobiety – Gdynia – Sopot – Gdańsk
It was an event created to gather people on the streets to demonstrate against the decision. People can either join as pedestrians or with their cars.
Under the event, the discussion forum was pretty active with pe
ople sharing instant notifications, images or videos. They were sending current locations and notifying where they were headed, which made it possible for us to find the marching crowd.
While walking by the crowd, I came to a realization that thanks to a social media platform, I was physically able to be part of a cause I would like to support. Even though I have been repeatedly emphasizing in my other blogposts that social media is a double-edged sword, today I felt like I made the most of a new media communication tool. I was able to use the opportunity it provided me.
Thus, it motivated me to write this blogpost and further communicate the protests happening both in the streets and in digital platforms under the two hashtags; #WyrokNaKobiety and #PowiedzKomus.
#PowiedzKomus & #WyrokNaKobiety
“PowiedzKomus” means “tell someone”, urging people to speak up. The hashtag is part of a challenge to raise awareness and oppose to the court’s decision. As part of the challenge, women draw attention to the dangers arising from the ban, to the possible influence of politicians from the ruling party and right-wing organizations and they are encouraged to share their own stories.
Following #PowiedzKomus, a second hashtag #WyrokNaKobiety which means “sentence on women” also emerged to unite people supporting women’s right to choose what to do with their own body.
While I was personally somehow managed today to build a bridge between online and offline activism, it has been only a few days since the protests started; thus, we will see in the coming days if the digital and on the street protests hopefully will have a meaningful impact in Poland.
In the meantime, while using social media to be alert in the protests, as always never forget to assess the information you receive critically.
Here is an introductory webpage with related informative links for any of you who wants to know more about what is happening in Poland: https://abortion-in-poland.carrd.co/#whatishappening
Featured image by Luka Łukasiak via Vogue Polska: https://www.vogue.pl/g/9486/strajk-kobiet-tysiace-ludzi-na-ulicach-po-wyroku-tk
