Exactly a year ago, on the eve of Poland’s elections, I joined a huge queue snaking around a polling station in Warsaw on a cold autumn day. Despite the cold and the hours spent waiting to vote, the atmosphere was festive. The atmosphere was thick with anticipation: a palpable sense that change was coming after eight years of retrograde rule by the Law and Justice (PiS) party.
Watching the exit polls in a crowded bar later that evening, it became clear that this election had been unlike any other, with record turnout (74%) and an unprecedented number of women and young people [1] went to vote.
Among the announcements that galvanized so many people, Donald Tusk and his Civic Coalition notably promised to reform Poland’s dangerous and draconian abortion law, which only allows termination of pregnancies in cases of rape, of incest or risk to the health or life of the pregnant person. While abortion had already been heavily restricted in Poland since 1993, a discredited Polish Constitutional Court decision in 2020, which came into force the following year, removed one of the admissible grounds for having the right to abortion – in cases of fetal malformation – and gave way to an almost total ban.
Donald Tusk promised that if elected, he would make access to free, safe and legal abortion for all a reality within 100 days of taking office.
Those 100 days have passed, and one year after Donald Tusk came to power, Poland’s ability to provide access to safe and legal abortion to all people in need is still no closer to completion. realize.
As of July 2024, Parliament has not adopted [2] a bill aimed at repairing the damage caused by the regression of the law relating to abortion under the PiS regime and by the judgment rendered in 2020 by the Constitutional Court controlled by the PiS.
This bill, which also proposed to end the criminalization of “assisted abortion”, was rejected by members of the ruling coalition, belonging to the Polish Peasant Party (PSL), who voted against this text alongside members of PiS and other conservatives.
Politicians from the PSL and the centrist Poland 2050 party have come out in favor of reinstating a “compromise” abortion law dating from 1993, which allowed terminations of pregnancies in cases of serious or fatal fetal malformation, in plus current legal grounds. They also suggested putting the issue to a referendum. Both proposals are contrary to international human rights law and standards, which require Poland to decriminalize abortion and ensure access to safe abortion for all people in need, without discrimination and with respect. personal autonomy and human rights.
In August, Donald Tusk said [3] prosaically that it would not be possible to obtain a parliamentary majority to support the revision of the law on abortion before the next elections. This statement implies that no additional efforts will be made to pass the reform for at least three years.
Polish women are used to broken promises and the exploitation of their vote
But for women, girls and others likely to become pregnant in Poland, waiting three years is not an option.
Since these dangerous restrictions came into force in January 2021, their effects have been keenly felt and sometimes tragic for women and their families. Given the “deterrent effect” of the law, doctors are more likely to refrain from taking the measures required to save pregnant patients and, since the entry into force of the ruling toughening the law, several women lost their lives [4].
New guidelines [5] on abortion made public by the government in August were presented as a measure which would help to alleviate the “chilling effect” on health workers. Yet while they specify that mental health reasons must be respected in the same way as other health reasons for abortion, they only reiterate the very limited circumstances in which legal abortions can be performed.
Polish women are used to broken promises and the exploitation of their vote. We suspected that the long-awaited change would not come thanks to the political goodwill of the man who would be at the head of our next government. Because we have been and still are on the front lines of this change.
Polish women organized, marched and were arrested. They filed appeals in court and put pressure on MPs in Parliament. They have carried out field actions in favor of reproductive rights in Poland and abroad, and some, like Justyna Wydrzyńska [6]provided abortion pills to those who needed them and were prosecuted accordingly.
And despite the risk of criminal prosecution, we continue to take charge of our reproductive health and autonomy. Grassroots, women-led organization Abortion Dream Team seeks to open through crowdfunding [7] the first clinic offering voluntary terminations of pregnancy in the country. In September [8]the long-standing Federation for Women and Planned Parenthood (FEDERA) has opened its first sexual and reproductive health clinic in Warsaw.
It is inconceivable that women continue to lose their lives due to gender-based violence committed by our own state. The government’s inaction on abortion is reckless, cruel and dangerous. It is completely unacceptable that women and girls are forced to endure another three years of the current dangerous abortion law. Some will die there. Prime Minister Donald Tusk and other coalition party leaders must wake up and enshrine our human right to freely, safely and legally accessible abortion into Polish law.
The man that so many women [9] elected Prime Minister must keep his promise and work with rights holders, civil society and experts to bring his coalition partners to make legal abortion a reality in Poland.
