I hadn’t broken Poland’s abortion laws – so why did the police raid my flat?
I hadn’t broken Poland’s abortion laws – so why did the police raid my flat?
Artist was humiliated by the authorities and lambasted by the press after terminating a pregnancy, but refuses to be silenced
Artist was humiliated by the authorities and lambasted by the press after terminating a pregnancy, but refuses to be silenced
From the article:
One night, two weeks after I’d taken the pills, I was at home when suddenly there was a loud banging on my front door and shouts of “police!”.
I had just come off the phone with my psychologist. It had been a stressful time and that night I’d had a panic attack. I’ve had these many times before and I called my psychologist for help. She asked me about any new medication I’d been taking so I told her about the abortion pills.
She was calm and told me that she was calling a paramedic. Instead she called the police. Later, the recording of her conversation with the police was leaked to the press, where she can be heard telling them that I’d had an abortion and was suicidal, though I specifically told her I wasn’t.
I have a lot to say about my psychologist, none of it fit for print, but suffice to say I trusted her completely and she violated that trust and our confidentiality.
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Just so we're all on the same page:
THIS HAPPENED IN JULY.
Just in case anyone wants to pin the blame on the new government.
The controversy is theoretically still ongoing for this case, but on the down low, as just one part of the backlash against the restrictions put on abortions in Poland 3 years ago.
The new gov't does seem to holding back on their election promise to change the laws, so they are part of the problem.
It's been two weeks. They've been in power for two weeks.
And you have to understand, this isn't caused by the right-wing passing some law, oh no, no... The Constitutional Court declared abortion unconstitutional. To change this, the new government needs to either change the constitution (requires a massive majority in Parliament), or completely rebuild the current justice system, replacing the CC justices responsible for that ruling (which will take a long time). Any attempt to do it with a simple act will get struck down by the right-wing in just the same way.
That is nothing to say about the fact that about a third of government coalition doesn't want complete legalisation, only a return to the old "compromise"
EDIT: And they did manage to do a lot in those two weeks so far, it's not like this is the only thing they promised to do.
Can they decriminalize it? I understand that legalization is very tricky institutionally, but there is a vast spectrum of improvements they can make to go from the hell described by this woman to something much more civilized.
A: Read my comment again, it explains what happened, and what can be done to change this.
B: The situation described was under the previous government. They were (for all intents and purposes) the same as Republicans when it came to abortion.
The Polish society at large remains split (unfortunately), and the part that doesn't want legalisation of abortion is also most politically active in terms of voter mobilisation (i.e. they tend to move their asses on election days) and the moderate right (which is part of the current government) doesn't want to potentially alienate those voters.
Right now it seems that the best course of action will be a decriminalisation, and a return to the previous status quo: abortion is legal when the life of women is at stake. This would mean that while getting one wouldn't be illegal, Polish hospitals wouldn't give you one. Any liberalisation beyond that seems to be an issue for a national referendum, which the moderate right is neutral on (i.e. they would allow one to happen, and would not stop things if liberalisation won)
The new government just sacked the entire staff of TPV, the previous right wing government's propaganda TV station.