13 March 2018

openDemocracy: ‘We won’t give up’: 25 years of feminist resistance to the war on women’s bodies in Poland

According to official statistics, only 1,098 legal abortions were performed in the whole country in 2016. Many more women terminate their pregnancies illegally, in conditions that may be unsafe, amid a climate of fear and intimidation. Those who can afford it, may travel outside of the country to access these services.

In 2013, 20 years after the restrictive law was passed, a poll from the Public Opinion Research Centre (CBOS) found that as many as one in three Polish women have had an abortion. A Poland free from abortion is a pure fiction. [...]

In January 2018, the Polish parliament rejected our proposal to make abortion safe and legal, and instead voted to continue work on a project put forward by hardline conservative group to also outlaw abortion in cases where the foetus has a congenital disorder – which account for 95% of all legal abortions performed in Poland today. [...]

We also reject homophobia, biphobia and transphobia. Poland is one of the worst states in EU to be an LGBTIQ individual. More than 2 million people in our country live in same-sex relationships but have no right to legalise them through marriage if they wish to. Violence against LGBTIQ people is common and goes unpunished.

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