Activist Justyna Wydrzyńska Photo: Kyrre Lien / VG
POLAND (VG) Abortion is more or less prohibited in Poland. The activist Justyna Wydrzyńska has felt firsthand how the authorities are tightening their grip.
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It was a desperate phone call that started it all.
In February 2020, a woman called the organization “Abortion Dream Team”, a group that fights for women’s rights and publishes information about abortion in Poland.
The woman on the phone said that she had become pregnant and had major side effects, while at the same time she was trapped in a relationship with an abusive partner.
She wanted to terminate the pregnancy, but was met by some of Europe’s strictest abortion laws.
That’s when activist Justyna Wydrzyńska made a choice. She sent abortion pills to the woman.
The act was to be dealt with severely by the Polish legal system.
Wydrzyńska in the courtroom in March. Photo: STR / AP / NTB
– The woman had been through hell. I was really hoping that the female judge would understand. But I was judged. It’s madness.
That’s what the activist says when VG meets her in a small town in central Poland. In March, she was sentenced to eight months of community service, in a sentence that was the first of its kind in Poland.
– The verdict marks a depressing low for the suppression of reproductive rights in Poland. It is a step backwards for women and girls, and those who defend these rights must pay the price.
The stated Amnesty following the crushing conviction.
Wydrzyńska has appealed, but the appeal case has not come up yet.
Demonstration for better abortion rights in Warsaw in January 2021. Photo: WOJTEK RADWANSKI / AFP / NTB
Poland has among Europe’s strictest abortion laws, where abortion can only be performed in cases of rape, incest or if the health of the mother is threatened.
Abortion rights for women were severely curtailed in 2020, prompting tens of thousands of women and men to take to the streets to demonstrate.
The consequence was quickly visible.
Between January 2021 and 2022, the organizations fighting for abortion were contacted by more than 32,000 people in Poland, a fivefold increase from the previous year.
They provided financial support to over 1,500 people so that they could travel abroad to have an abortion.
Women who contact the organization can now have pills sent from abroad, so that they can bypass the Polish regulations.
– We cannot wait until the legislation changes, we have to help people today, says Wydrzyńska.
Police and abortion activists in Poland. Photo: Czarek Sokolowski / AP / NTB
Little faith in recovery
At the same time, the political landscape in Poland is changing, a country that is now trying to position itself as an economic and military superpower in Europe.
On 15 October there are elections again in the country, and the ruling party, “Law and Justice”, is fighting to retain power. The party is very conservative and nationalist.
Hundreds of thousands of people have gathered for an opposition rally in Warsaw on Sunday, two weeks before the crucial election.
– Big change is coming. This is a sign of Poland’s rebirth, Donald Tusk, leader of the liberal Boerger Platform (PO), told the huge crowd.
MASS DEMONSTRATION: A very large crowd of people turned up in Warsaw on Sunday in support of the liberal Civic Platform. Photo: Czarek Sokolowski / AP / NTB
Wydrzyńska has little faith that women’s rights will improve in Poland anytime soon.
– Poland is a very patriarchal society, and a country where religion and the church have a lot of power. Equality has not come that far, she believes.
Demonstration for better abortion rights in 2011, in the city of Wroclaw. Photo: Sebastian Borowski / EPA / NTB
Robert Biedroń, a center-left Polish politician and head of the European Parliament’s Committee on Women’s Rights and Equality, has stated that the strict laws in Poland have a long history.
– The fact that women do not have access to sexual and reproductive services is not only because of “Law and justice”. It is part of a long history, but which was even more radicalized by this government.
The Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights, Dunja Mijatovic, has too expressed concern that several European countries are tightening up on women’s rights, and highlights both Poland and Hungary.
– Some European countries have unfortunately taken steps that reverse the progress that has been achieved in the field of sexual and reproductive health and rights, she has stated.
– Any backward step is contrary to the member states’ obligation to fully guarantee this human right.
Watch video: Why the Polish people demonstrated against the abortion law in 2020:
Published:
Published: 02.10.23 at 22:15
Updated: 02.10.23 at 23:05
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2023-10-02 20:15:11
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