"When I heard about what happened in Poland in 2020, I had no uncertainty that the Government of the United Right had brought women back to the mediate Ages," said Croatian MEP Fred Matić, referring to the tightening of abortion law by the Przyłębska Court.
The politician was a guest dedicated to the equality of the panel Women’s Rigts – Never to Be Taken for Grantedin which I took part, and in which we were jointly wondering how the Croatian Sabor elections this year and the Parliamentary Members in Strasbourg could defy the utmost right. There are many indications that both chambers will have a conservative and anti-equal majority. If in Poland we managed to remove the Law and Justice from power, how about a prescription?
I admit that at first I had problem answering the question asked me in Zagreb about what Croats could learn from Poles. Our protests against the TK's decisions may have been spectacular, but government has not translated – for now – for nothing. possibly the turnout campaigns that we had organised before the October vote brought the desired electoral effects, but the recently elected authority inactive has the keys on the liberalisation of abortion law. We may have come out of the mediate Ages, but we're inactive far from modern. We may not be ruled by spiritual fanatics, but the conservatives who play pro-European fads inactive do.
"However, it was women, not Tusk, who defeated the PiS" – in this opinion I was killed by Matić and another panelists: artist Arijana Lekić Friedrich, unionist Sunčica Bronardić and Davorka Moslavac Forjan from Women’s Forum, reminding him that politics did not keep up with society, but could get a fast nudge from him. I returned to Poland with hope, but I was greeted by the debate about the abortion referendum.
Here we go again
If even Croats know that our – feminine, but not only due to the fact that supported by broad alliances – anger and determination have led to the exchange of the government's squad and the reversal of spiritual fundamentalism, then we can no longer let ourselves believe that the change is what, contrary to our electoral and social promises, our democratic political representatives are proposing today.
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In a referendum that Simon Holovnia clears his Catholic conscience, not only will the Polish decide whether they want to be mothers, but besides the will of men, priests, doctors, politicians and another people who are not at hazard of becoming pregnant. This is not democracy, but another show of contempt for Poles. Old songs that go sideways.
So what do we want? For Members and Members to yet play our melody, which they know well, they are only trying to pretend to be proceeding impaired. We request free choice: in 1993, erstwhile we and our sisters passed the household Planning Act, in 1997, erstwhile the Constitutional Court then took distant the right to terminate our pregnancy for social reasons, in 2007 erstwhile politicians tried to supply legal protection to the foetus at the expense of maternal subjectivity, in 2016, erstwhile we went out with black umbrellas on the streets in protest of political abuses to anti-abortion and anti-female organizations, and then in 2020, erstwhile We told him to get the fuck out of the ruling class. with almost a complete abortion ban announced in the mediate of a pandemic. We decided what we wanted a long time ago. We did it, too. October 15, 2023.
Does anyone inactive think that the full legalization of abortion at least up to the 12th week of pregnancy, introduced by the Sejm, alternatively than as part of a referendum that – how Convincing Amnesty global – is simply a stupid thought for at least 75 reasons, is this the postulate of a narrow group of left-wing feminists? More public opinion polls show something completely different.
"Poles and Poles do not address the issue of abortion by political prism or ideological dispute. They treat it as something very individual and personal, and their attitude is characterized by empathy and concern" – the researchers from the More in Common Poland Foundation convince.
Dr. Zofia Włodarczyk and Adam Traczyk point out that as many as 57 percent of the people surveyed by them consider the right to "interrupt pregnancy for crucial individual reasons without having to administer it" to be obvious. Only 9 percent of the population are in favour of a complete ban. Others let abortion to be legal under certain conditions. The number in taking the first, most liberal position of a female (59%) somewhat exceeds men (54%).
It will not be amazing to add that the age groups that differed most in this substance are the youngest and oldest, but these are not large disparities. For example, by 12 weeks of pregnancy, there were 39 percent of adults under the age of 29 and 35 percent of those aged 65.
Laws must be fought, power earned
So if neither sex nor age divides us into supporters and opposers of abortion, at least political views? It turns out that here too, the issue is different from what the government suggests, repeating the thesis of the eternally unaided to change society. Society is more liberal and, above all, more empathic than Kosiniak-Kamish and Holovnia are able to admit. According to Poles and Poles, politicians turn utmost emotions around abortion.
From the statements cited in the report, it can be concluded that in most cases "Poles and Poles trust women's decisions". While any respondents let consultation with the partner, the final decision leaves the pregnant person, believing that the partners who decide (or do not) on the kid should respect each other. The survey thus provides a comment to the doubts of the Polish MEP, Ewa Szymanowska, for whom the referendum is to give possible fathers the right to decide what will happen to the fetus. Force to give birth – how I wrote in the text on the availability of contraception, is violence.
What may surprise you is the level of general cognition of how to execute abortion. A large proportion of the test subjects indicate the doctor as the 1 who must assist with the appointment. The authors of the survey interpret this as follows: "Polish society sees abortion by the prism of the procedure performed by the doctor in the hospital, not by acting independently in the privacy of the home, for example by taking the abortion tablet".
The most interesting thing about More in Common is the orientation on abortion. "It happened that erstwhile asked if abortion should be criminal, they answered yes at first, and after asking who and how they should be punished, they withdrew from the first opinion. any were besides unaware of fresh changes in abortion law – 1 of the interviewers said that he thought abortion due to the genetic defect of the fetus is now legal in Poland" – I read in a study which I urge to decision makers first, due to the fact that for now I have the impression that for example Szymon Hołownia reads only his own books.
The survey would learn that erstwhile it comes to changes in law, Polish society prefers the parliamentary path. The referendum as an option proposed by the group of the talker of the Sejm gathered quite a few criticism in talks with respondents. While women feel that those who do not become pregnant should not decide to interrupt or continue, men are motivated by economical considerations. They admit that a referendum is simply a waste of money and time. It's hard to get a better summary.
And if we have to, we'll go out on the streets. We remember that laws are not given erstwhile and for all, and we must fight for them. Power is the same. But you gotta gain it.
