Freedom Fight Continues Part Two: Poland’s New Abortion Law
On October 28 2020, Poland tightened its abortion laws that were already one of the strictest in the European Union. Under the new law, Polish women are only legally permitted to have abortions in cases of rape or incest, or if the life of the mother is endangered. Poland's constitutional court ruled that abortion due to fetal defects was unconstitutional.
Until now, on estimate 98% of legal abortions were carried out due to fetal birth defects, meaning that the ruling effectively places a total ban on abortions. This has led to protests nationwide, despite the ongoing pandemic and increasing concern over the country’s state of democracy. Poland’s populist-governing Law and Justice Party (PiS) has been accused of undermining democracy, as the party’s written agenda from this autumn involved an attack both towards the judiciary and independent media to claim more power.
However, the public does not seem quite keen on the current state of the country. Even though Poland is one of the most strongly Catholic countries, a series of opinion polls show that a majority of Poles oppose the restrictive laws. The largest protests in the country since the fall of communism have been continuing for multiple days straight, delaying the implementation of the ban. Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki denounces the protests and commented that “The situations that we are seeing in the streets and which amount to acts of aggression, vandalism … are absolutely inadmissible and should not be taking place at all.”
Under the current government, Poland has been observed to be deeply divided. A recent human rights violation in the country has been the introduction of “LGBT-free zones”. The country has been ranked the worst country in the EU for being gay or trans, and now this abortion scheme does not portray the country in any better light. The EU is having a major challenge with maintaining free democracy and human rights within its increasingly ideologically divided member states. It is grappling with some member states fearing for the threat to human rights, democracy and multiculturalism, as others express concern that the EU is overstepping bounds of national sovereignty. During recent years, the EU commission has declared there to be “a clear risk of a serious breach of the rule of law in Poland” and the EU has also launched infringement proceedings against countries like Poland for failing to resettle limited numbers of asylum seekers, in accordance with decisions previously taken by other EU member states. Despite these proceedings, appropriate changes have not been seen in Poland, and due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the democratic crisis seems like it will move to the back burner. However, the protests in Poland amid the pandemic show that people are still ready to fight for their rights.
This article is part of a multi-part series on the rule of law and status of human rights legislation in the European Union. Previous installments can be found here and here.