Poland's culture war Women's rights and the battel of the sexes?

Poland's culture war: Let the abortion battle commence
15.04.2016

Despite having one of the strictest abortion laws in Europe, Poland wants to go even further and ban abortion altogether. As the government continues to push its anti-progressive agenda, many Poles are up in arms.

The ruling party, Law and Justice (PiS) - which is closely affiliated with the Catholic Church in Poland - has been very vocal in its expression of conservative views since winning post-communist Poland's first single-party majority in elections in September. Among other things, it has voiced criticism of homosexuality as a "lifestyle," clearly stated its opposition to same-sex marriage and IVF, and largely supported banning abortion, even if the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest.

Revisiting old battles

The plans to reduce abortion to almost zero seem to be a key element of the party's mission to impose - or re-impose - a more traditional narrative and set of moral codes on a society that is increasingly divided between those that want to hold on to the past in what they see as a dangerous and frightening new world, and those that see the last 26 years since the fall of communism as a period of Westernization, liberalism and tolerance.

"During the general election campaign [PiS leader Jaroslaw] Kaczynski appealed to a highly conservative electorate and by doing so unleashed radical right-wing demons, who are now thirsty for blood," says Agnieszka Laszczuk, a journalist at Polish Radio.

"In order to quench that thirst, which in this case is the need to re-establish patriarchal control over women’s bodies, PiS is apparently ready to pass a horrendous bill, which would mostly affect the lives of lower-class women who cannot afford either getting a backstreet abortion or going abroad," Laszczuk says.

These "culture wars" are taking place on several battle fields simultaneously, with PiS attacking the EU's refugee quota system, as well as tampering with an independent judiciary, media and education system.

Critics say the PiS government has neutered the country's highest court. It certainly moved fast in late 2015 to amend the law on how the Constitutional Tribunal – Poland's highest body to rule on the constitutionality of laws – functions.

With the tribunal effectively stymied, the first battle has been won, critics suggest. Now the bridgehead is in place, the infantry can cross into enemy territory.

"Western leaders now have 9 million reasons to reconsider their approach [to the PiS government] - one reason for each Polish woman of reproductive age, for whom the lack of effective constitutional checks and balances is no longer an abstract political problem," says Maciej Kisilowski, a professor of law and public management and Director of Initiative for Regulatory Innovation at Central European University.

"Despite the Constitutional Tribunal's traditional conservatism on social issues, it would surely reject the key provisions of the proposed abortion law – a prospect that would empower PiS moderates to rein in their extremist colleagues. After all, if a proposed law cannot survive judicial review, why pick a divisive political fight in the first place?" Kisilowski says.

"Poland's abortion bill may be just the beginning of a frightening stream of policy proposals aimed at dismantling basic human rights and rule-of-law protections in Poland," he adds.

He points to a program of funding for in-vitro fertilization - which has led to some 3,600 births - that will be closed in July. Government subsidies are also to be scrapped for the costly "morning-after" pill.

Culture wars

In many ways, the culture wars have been framed in 21st century Poland as a struggle between the last government headed by liberal Civic Platform (PO), and PiS.

But this is perhaps more a struggle about modernity, about joining (or not) the modern world, and negotiating and sifting the mass of largely imported modernity across the cultural, political, social and economic spheres.

The process of initiating and managing a breakneck jump into modernity since 1989 in Poland - and elsewhere in the region - has been accompanied by versions of what one may characterize as PO‘s "managed opening" - embracing the globalized world - and PiS' "managed closing" - a far more skeptical sifting of things "Western," including abortion.

PiS' discourse has tended to be far closer to the populism and ethno-nationalist rhetoric of the far-right than the moderate centrism of PO on many issues.

Populism is a rejection of key elements of modernity, based on assumptions of a fundamental unity of "the people." Populism also emphasizes negativism and reacts against elites, institutions and various "others," thus engendering anti-capitalist, anti-Semitic, anti-Islam, anti-Russian, anti-German, anti-urbanist and anti-modernist viewpoints, among others.

PiS' political discourse has been based largely on this kind of negation, with a perjorative use of labels such as "post-communist," "liberal," and "euro enthusiast."

Tightening the law

Current legislation, which dates back to 1993, dictates that abortions are illegal except when the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest, poses a health risk to the mother or the fetus is damaged.

PiS' proposal would allow abortion only if the mother's life is in danger, and would lift maximum jail terms for those carrying out illegal terminations from two to five years. Moreover, anyone in Poland who provided information about or made arrangements for a legal abortion abroad would be charged as an accessory.

PiS leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski and Prime Minister Beata Szydlo both say they back the idea. More than 100 Polish journalists also recently signed an open letter to members of the parliament supporting the ban and encouraging legislators to change the current law.

Birds and bees, facts and figures

The Federation for Women and Family Planning estimates that about 150,000 illegal abortions are performed each year. Legal abortions in Poland, which has a population of 38 million, are limited to around 700 to 1,800 per year. The National Health Fund says there were over 1,800 abortions in 2014, compared to over 1,350 in 2013.

Some women travel to Germany, where abortion is technically unlawful but tolerated until the 12th week of pregnancy, or to other nearby countries where restrictions are laxer. In Berlin, for example, some women are helped by Ciocia Basia ("Aunt Basia"), a network of activists that introduces Polish women to sympathetic gynecologists and puts them up at volunteers' homes.

This is partly because the grounds on which a procedure can be requested in Poland are restrictive, and partly because obtaining an abortion remains difficult because of the so-called conscience clause, which allows medical staff to refuse to perform an abortion if it goes against their personal beliefs.

The church cashes in its political chips

Some see the socially conservative PiS as paying back the influential church for its assistance in galvanizing support at last year's election, via organs such as Radio Maryja. Abortion, IVF and homosexuality are top of the church's "to do"(or perhaps "not to do") list.

The coat hanger: a potent symbol
A woman holds a coat hanger, a symbol of underground abortions during a demonstration against a potential ban on abortion.

Speaking at a March 30 Sejm pro-life conference, Archbishop Henryk Hoser of Warsaw, who heads the Polish church's bioethics commission, said "every human life, regardless of usefulness and serviceability," should be legally protected, adding that a growing disregard for life had "degraded medicine and social life."

On Sunday April 3, a formal campaign for a ban began. Bishops nationwide read an open letter in churches, claiming life began at the moment of conception and ended with natural death. The letter called on "all people, parliamentarians and government officials to ensure the legal protection of unborn children."

The bill gained more attention after the recent story of a late-term baby who allegedly was born alive after a failed abortion attempt at a Warsaw hospital and screamed for an hour as it was left to die.
A protester holds a banner during a protest against plans of introduction of new abortion ban law in front of the Sejm (lower house of Parliament), in Warsaw, Poland, 03 April

Protest against the harsher law in front of the parliament

"The call to tighten the anti-abortion law is the bill that the church wants Law and Justice to pay in return for the huge support," Zbigniew Mikolejko, a sociologist, told AP. "But tightening of the law will push people away from the church," Mikolejko said, adding: "It is a suicidal step that will also weaken the ruling party."

And he may have a point . . .

"I personally think that this bill should be much more liberal and should not interfere with the rights of women making decisions about their lives," says psychologist Zuza Swierczynska.

"From my perspective, plans for an absolute ban on abortion even in the case of serious damage to the fetus, rape or life-threatening health risks to women, with the possible penalty of long-term imprisonment, is unacceptable state interference in the life of a woman affected by personal tragedy. I do not see any rational justification for the introduction of these provisions, all the more so given that I'm a non-believer."

"I cannot understand why the current ruling political class wants to impose its worldview on the rest of society by force. Such a policy shows complete immaturity and irresponsibility, and I'm going to protest against it in every way permissible in a democratic society," Swierczynska says.

100.000 signatures needed

The legislative initiative is awaiting a decision from the parliamentary speaker on whether it will be registered. If successful, the Stop Abortion committee will have three months to garner 100,000 signatures to ensure that the law will be debated in the Sejm, Poland's lower house of parliament.

Protesters hold banners during a protest against plans of introduction of new abortion ban law in front of the Sejm (lower house of Parliament), in Warsaw, Poland, 03 April 2016

Many feel an absolute ban would be going too far

In June 2011, Polish anti-abortion NGOs collected more than 500,000 signatures for a proposed bill to ban abortion in Poland altogether. The bill, rejected then by a majority of MPs, got enough support to be sent to a Sejm committee in order to be subject to further amendments. This time around, however, a PiS majority may swing the balance.

Opinion split

In the latest poll on abortion by the CBOS Public Opinion Research Center, 69 percent of Poles viewed abortion as "immoral and unacceptable," 14 percent of Poles were ambivalent and 14 percent viewed it as acceptable. But only one in seven (14 percent ) supports the complete ban of all abortions, while more than one-third (36 percent) believe there should be exceptions.

At the same time, almost half (45 percent) think that abortion should be permitted. Support for abortion rights when a mother's life is in danger is almost universal (87 percent). About a quarter think that it should be legal if the woman is in a difficult material (26 percent) or personal (23 percent) situation. Almost one in five respondents (18 percent) think abortion should be legal if a woman does not want to have a child.

Feminism under attack?

Polish police raid offices of feminist activists after abortion protests

'They are afraid of women's protest and want to find out all possible methods to devalue the Polish women's solidarity grassroot solidarity movement,' says leading campaigner

Maya Oppenheim (Friday 6 October 2017):

Women’s rights groups in Poland have had their documents and computers seized in police raids which took place a day after thousands of activists marched against the country’s restrictive abortion law.

The Women’s Rights Centre, which works on a range of women's issues, and Baba, which helps domestic violence victims, had their offices in the cities of Warsaw, Lodz, Gdansk, and Zielona Gora invaded by police.

Both organisations took part in this week's anti-government protests marking the anniversary of the historic “Black Protest”. The demonstration took place a year ago and saw people dressed in black come together to stop a plan in parliament for an almost total ban on abortion.

The activists have accused Polish authorities of attempting to intimidate them and said losing the files will obstruct the work they do.

“We have the impression they are afraid of women's protest and want to find out all possible methods to devalue the Polish women's grassroots solidarity movement,” Krystyna Kacpura, the Executive Director at Poland Fed for Women & Family Planning, told The Independent.

“They also want us to be afraid of possible repression from the government's side. It started with women's NGOs working on violence against women and funded by the government in previous years.”

The organisations claim police informed them prosecutors were hunting for evidence in an investigation into suspected wrongdoing in the Justice Ministry which took place under the former government. The ministry was feeding funding to the women’s groups at the time.

“They reassured us that the investigation concerned Ministry of Justice officers. We don't believe in this information because the raids occurred one day after women protested across Poland,” Ms Kacpura said.

“We were shocked about the raids. Women's NGOs have nothing to hide but this operation stopped their work. They are not able to continue everyday important work for violated women and children.”

She said women marched in front of the office of the Centre for Women's Rights on Friday to show that other NGOs are standing in solidarity with them.

Marta Lempart, the head of the Polish Women’s Strike, which organised the protests, echoed the views of Ms Kacpura. She told Associated Press: “This is an abuse of power because, even if there is any suspicion of wrongdoing, an inquiry could be done in a way that doesn’t affect the organisations’ work”.

Anita Kucharska-Dziedzic, who is the director of Baba, claimed police entered her office in Zielona Góra, which is in western Poland, at 9am on Wednesday and stayed there until 6pm working to remove files.

Kate Allen, Director of Amnesty International UK, said: “These heavy-handed police tactics amount to harassment of women’s rights organisations. Coming a day after the protests against restrictive abortions laws, they risk silencing the discussion on abortion rights in Poland."

She added: “These raids targeted four organisations that provide support to women and girls, including victims of domestic violence. Confiscation of hard drives and computers with personal data appears punitive towards these organisations that openly supported the protest on Tuesday."

Prosecutors hit back at the accusations levied against them, claiming the fact the raids took place a day after the protests was merely coincidental.

The ruling Law and Justice party is founded on a socially conservative, Catholic ideology and has pursued a restrictive agenda with regards to female reproductive rights.

For instance, the morning after pill is no longer prescription-free because the minister of health, Konstanty Radziwiłł, raised concerns teenage girls would use it on a daily basis. The same minister also claimed that as a doctor he would not even prescribe the pill to a woman who had been raped, citing the conscience clause in defence.

In Poland abortion is illegal except in cases of rape or when a female’s life is at risk or if the fetus is irreparably damaged. As such, women’s rights activists took to the street this week to express their frustration at the fact abortion was still illegal in most cases and demand a radical overhaul of the country’s laws.

In October 2016, legislation was proposed to completely outlaw abortion overall. The plans prompted around 30,000 people to assemble despite awful weather in Warsaw’s Castle Square, chanting “We want doctors, not missionaries!”.

The far-reaching protests were successful and triggered lawmakers to vote against the restrictive new law just three days afterwards. The eastern European country is one of the few countries in the world to outlaw abortion following decades of total legalisation.

The Polish Catholic Church has become intertwined with Euroscepticism and the promotion of conservative “national values”

After a surge of support in the Presidential and General Elections last year, the right-wing national conservative Law and Justice Party now dominates Polish politics. In this post, Simona Guerra explores the government’s relationship with the Polish Church and its role in fuelling religious Euroscepticism and supporting draconian abortion laws. She writes that the close alliance shows there are mutual benefits and the Catholic Church does not easily give up its spiritual, moral and social authority.

2016 is a Jubilee year in Poland, and to mark the occasion Pope Francis will visit Kraków in July. Catholicism holds a unique position in Poland, as it is symbolically and historically linked to the foundation of the Polish state. However, it also has a significant and apparently growing role in contemporary Polish politics. Increasingly, religious events are becoming platforms for political discussions, while religious figures are attending state ceremonies and are enjoying an influential voice in policymaking. This dynamic was in evidence on 14 April, when Poland’s Prime Minister, speaking at a ceremony celebrating the 1,050th anniversary of the Catholic Church as the national faith, accused more established EU member states of behaviour which suggested a feeling of superiority to newer member states from Central and Eastern Europe, such as Poland. Meanwhile, religious leaders weighed in on live debates over the potential move towards a more restrictive Abortion law, with Polish bishops openly in support of the initiative.

The Abortion rules in Poland are already very restrictive. The 1993 Family Planning Act stated abortion is legal only in very specific circumstances, namely:

1. When pregnancy is a threat to the health of the pregnant woman,
2. When the embryo is irreversibly damaged,
3. When there is justified suspicion (confirmed by a prosecutor) that pregnancy is the result of an illegal act.

Doctors who perform illegal abortions are subject to punishment of up to three years of prison, and while this law was slightly relaxed in 1996, it was subsequently tightened when abortion was ruled as unconstitutional on the basis that the Polish Constitution includes provisions of legal protection of life to every human being (Art.38). Young Poles – particularly women – have protested often and fiercely against possible further restrictions, supported by civil society groups, and the Prime Minister Beata Szydło and others (who personally support it) appear to have softened their stance and are reconsidering their position.

‘Family friendly’ programmes formed a centrepiece of the Law and Justice party’s (Prawo i Sprawiedliwość: PiS) electoral campaign, and this month the government launched its flagship ‘500+’ programme, which allocates a monthly allowance of 500 złoty (112-114 Euros) for all second born and subsequent children until they reach 18 years of age. It is for all to see that the “holy” alliance between PiS (the ruling social conservative party) and the conservative Church is viewed by both as mutually beneficial. As explained in my research, ‘Eurosceptic Allies or Euroenthusiast Friends? The Political Discourse of the Roman Catholic Church in Poland’ and forthcoming monograph, ‘Religion and Euroscepticism in Post-Communist Europe’, when the Church decides to enter the political arena, the PiS respects the Church’s privileges and is happy to commit itself to explicit guarantees regarding their ‘Christian social’ programme.

Since 2005, Poland has seen the alternation between the social right, represented by PiS, and the liberal right, represented by Civic Platform (Platforma Obywatelska: PO). The liberal right PO won the 2007 and 2012 elections under the leadership of Donald Tusk (now president of the European Council) and Poland experienced continuity in power for the first time since the fall of the Soviet Union and Poland’s transition to multi-party democracy. The stable leadership of the liberal party, and the added success of PO at the presidential elections, guided Poland during its first decade in the EU. This coincided with a strong economic situation, and pro-EU attitudes were picked up in public opinion polls. In the months after joining the EU, the average level of support has never declined below 72% (CBOS) with very low levels of opposition to the EU integration process.

This all changed in May 2015 when the presidential elections saw a neck-to-neck race between the PiS and PO candidates, and the unexpected victory of Andrzej Duda (PiS). This was followed by a further convincing victory for PiS in the October general election. The surge can be attributed to the discontent towards the government, which has emerged due to the unpopular pension reforms, raising the retirement age to 67, social concerns around unemployment, the refugee crisis and the wave of young emigration abroad. In the UK alone, Poles make up the second largest national group of foreign-born citizens (at 8.7%) and the largest numbers of foreign citizens (13%) (2011 Census data and Oxford Migration Observatory). The wave of migration abroad may also signal rising expectations, which the government has been unable to keep pace with, despite the rising standards of living and benefits that came with EU membership.

The PO has led a narrative on the success of Poland as a winner of the transition across the region, but this has increasingly been seen as arrogant triumphalism of the elites. As a result, those from the areas of poverty that persist across the country preferred to vote for conservative political parties, while protest parties won in particular the vote of young people. The consequent PiS victory has heralded a predictable turn towards more socially conservative policies, attempts to control education, pro-life stances and the promotion of religion in everyday life.

It is perhaps unsurprising that Roman Catholic countries with a predominant Catholic post-Communist society see the Church as having a legitimate role in political life. In post-Communist Central and Eastern Europe, membership of the religious community and membership of the nation often go hand in hand. The notion of belonging together – free from the Soviet regime – overlapped with those values and norms that were developed and strengthened the nation during the years of democratisation.

The Catholic Church can be controversial in the sense that it has been ambiguous with regard to modernisation and democratisation in the past. When there is an alliance between religion and politics, it can result in a social and cultural partnership which controls and influences the government agenda and moves policy in a social conservative (and Eurosceptic) direction, which represents a context in which the Church is willing to resist liberal developments. As a result, the Polish Catholic Church has become intertwined with Euroscepticism and the promotion of ‘national values’, as well as a vocal proponent of restrictive abortion laws.

Public opinion currently still favours the government, but Poland has come under the EU spotlight for weakening the Constitutional Tribunal and the European Commission has begun monitoring the rule of law due to concerns over the new government’s actions. This could add further fuel to religious Euroscepticism in the short term, but in the longer term the Church’s close and open association with a single political party could undermine its position as a moral authority in Poland, while as shown in my research, it has already lost part of its role as guide in people’s life.

A woman takes part in a rally marking the first anniversary of the “Black Protest” against plans of changing the abortion law, in front of Palace of Culture and Science in Warsaw, October 3, 2017. 

"Women's rights are a condition of a healthy state"

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH  - For this year’s 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence, the hashtag #TrzymamStroneKobiet has gone viral in Poland. It translates to “I’m on women’s side.”

But these days, Poland’s government appears to be anything but on the side of women.

On October 4, police in several Polish cities raided offices of the Women’s Rights Centre and Baba, two nongovernmental organizations that support domestic violence victims and promote women’s rights. The official rationale for the raids was a search for evidence linked to alleged wrongdoing by the previous government’s Ministry of Justice. But the timing was suspicious. The previous day, activists from these organizations were among thousands who marched against a restrictive abortion law on the anniversary of the Black Protest.

Organizations like these provide crucial support for gender-based violence survivors, including legal aid and shelters and run important public awareness campaigns. Based only on complaints filed with police, in 2016 almost 67,000 women in Poland were victims of domestic violence. The actual numbers are likely much higher, as many victims never report violence. According to the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights, around 4 million Polish women and girls have experienced physical or sexual violence since the age of 15.

Yet last year, the Ministry of Justice withdrew funding from several women’s rights nongovernmental organizations, including Women’s Rights Centre and Baba, claiming that they discriminate against men because they only support female survivors of domestic violence. Women’s Rights Centre was refused financial support again earlier this year.

Government and religious authorities have repeatedly argued that “Polish women are treated with far more respect than in other European countries,” but the ruling Law and Justice party has a peculiar way of demonstrating it. Last fall, the Ministry of Justice initiated a draft bill calling for withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention, a treaty aimed at preventing violence against women, supporting survivors, and holding perpetrators to account. Though the initiative was abandoned in January, parliamentarians periodically call for Poland’s withdrawal, claiming the convention is a source of evil “gender ideology” aimed at destroying Polish traditional values. Law and Justice has strongly opposed the European Union’s formal accession to the convention, calling it “a tragic mistake.”

Instead of creating an oppressive political climate for women’s rights activists, the government in Poland should take measures to prevent domestic violence, protect and support victims, and promote gender equality. It’s time for the government to demonstrate it really is on women’s side.