“I can’t believe they are taking advantage of the pandemic to iron out these ridiculous laws!” annoys Anna Zaradny, while the Polish Parliament is due to debate this Thursday the total ban on abortion in the event of serious malformations of the embryo. Before the vote on Tuesday, dressed in all black, including mask and umbrella, this 42-year-old artist is one of the few pedestrians to demonstrate in central Warsaw, while rallies of more than two people are prohibited in order to fight against the spread of coronavirus. “It is the only thing to do, while the government is taking advantage of the crisis to destroy our rights and democracy.” Behind her, many cars are circling the Dmowski roundabout, which has not had traffic jams for a month, black banners streaked with red lightning hanging from the rear windows in protest.
One of the most restrictive laws in Europe
Faced with the ban on demonstrations, women’s rights movements had to be creative, especially on social media. Because these are precisely the “Czarny protests”, mass demonstrations of women dressed in black, in 2016 and 2018, who had pushed back the PiS, the ultra-conservative party in power since 2015. Under pressure from the street, the popular bill “Stop abortion” had been pushed in parliamentary committee in 2018, which amounted to freezing it. Out of the fridge in full containment, the text, written by the ultra-Catholic Institute Ordo Iuris for legal culture (abbreviated Ordo Iuris), plans to toughen the law on abortion, yet already one of the most restrictive of Europe, the result of a compromise between Church and State in 1993.
Aborting in Poland is only possible in three cases: if the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest, if the mother’s life is in danger, or if the fetus has irreversible damage. It is this provision that Ordo Iuris, supported by the PiS, wants to repeal. However, more than 95% of the 1,000 legal abortions performed each year in Poland are under this condition. The text also proposes to punish women who use abortion, and the caregivers who carry it out, with a five-year prison sentence. Should the law be approved by parliament, the president, Andrzej Duda, will not use his veto, he said in an interview with the Catholic magazine Niedziela, At the beginning of April : “I am firmly opposed to eugenic abortion and I believe that killing disabled children is simply murder. If a law on this subject were to arrive on my desk, I would certainly promulgate it. ”
“Threatening the health and lives of women and girls”
As Poles and Poles mainly demonstrate virtually – selfies with placards, marathons of Facebook speeches, protest emails sent to MPs, petition – NGOs are worried about the disastrous calendar. Especially since another law, just as controversial, will be debated during the same parliamentary session: Thursday, the Diet will look into the criminalization of sex education, a project also led by Ordo Iuris, and entitled “Stop pedophilia ”. “To try to pass these dangerously regressive laws at any time would be a shame, but to rush their examination under the guise of the Covid-19 crisis is unthinkable, Amnesty International Polska president responded in a statement. “They will not only threaten the health and lives of women and girls, but will also prevent young people from accessing the information they need to have healthy sex.”
For Anna Zaradny, this timing is hard to accept, while “The PiS forces so that the presidential is maintained on May 10. Hard to believe that our country is part of the European Union! PiS methods are the same as those used in the communist era, except that abortion was legal at the time. Poland is getting closer and closer to a dictatorship! ” On the night of Wednesday to Thursday, the PiS proposed a law extending the presidential term from 5 to 7 years, the first step towards canceling the May 10 election.
For many Polish feminists, such as Klementyna Suchanow, founder of Strajk Kobiet (“the women’s strike”), examining the texts in a state of health emergency is not a question of “Religious or moral values, but of power”. The President of the Diet, Elzbieta Witek, who decided to put both texts on the agenda this week, was legally bound to do so before mid-May. Until then, it is impossible to know whether the population’s deconfinement would have taken place.
– .
