Women in Poland are fighting for abortion rights again – and we need to listen

Abortion is now almost totally illegal in Poland.

Over the weekend, tens of thousands of people took to the streets to protest the country's near-total ban on abortion. According to officials, approximately 100,000 people attended protest marches in Warsaw alone against the country's new law, a ruling which deemed abortion in cases of fatal foetal abnormality unconstitutional. The new law makes abortion entirely illegal across the country, except in cases of rape, incest, or where the mother's life is in danger. Largely influenced by the country's strong Catholic presence, the new law was agreed upon on October 22. Poland's abortion laws had already been further tightened previous to this, with the country seeing several changes to the law surrounding terminations over the past few decades. In the '60s and '70s, abortion was largely legal in Poland up to specific number of weeks gestation. As time went on, the laws became stricter and stricter, soon coming to permit terminations only where a woman was living in "difficult living conditions," or due to rape, incest, FFA, or where there was a threat to the life of the mother. https://twitter.com/kstawinska/status/1322233152769765377?s=20 Before 2016, the vast majority of legal abortions carried out in Poland were due to foetal abnormalities, many of which meant that the baby would not survive outside of the womb. That year, legislation was proposed that would have enforced a near-total ban on the procedure. After a series of strikes, the legislation was voted against with many politicians distancing themselves from the proposal. Now, however, Poland's access to abortion services has been tightened even further, allowing for the procedure only in cases of rape, incest, when the woman's life or health is at risk, or when there are severe foetal defects. According to The Guardian, some hospitals in Poland started turning away women seeking abortions over the weekend, even though the ruling had not yet taken effect. The news comes over four years after Polish women first went on strike to protest stricter abortion measures, and three years after Irish women did the same in support of a repeal of the Eighth Amendment. Similarly to Ireland, abortion restrictions in Poland were largely influenced by the church. And similar to Ireland, Polish women are now travelling abroad to avail of termination services that are no longer available to them. In fact, they have been doing for a while. Poland is one of a small number of countries to almost totally outlaw abortion after having somewhat progressive laws in place previously. Women in the US have experienced similar drawbacks in recent years, as the services they could avail of were steadily reduced. Abortion services in Kentucky, Mississippi, Georgia, and Ohio were almost totally revoked following the introduction of so-called "heartbeat bills," which permits terminations only before six weeks gestation. Alabama banned abortion entirely. Where progress has been made in some countries, elsewhere abortion rights have continued to dwindle. In countries like Poland, more and more women will be subjected to illegal abortions, secret terminations, and travelling for healthcare that should be available to them at home. There will be more trauma, more suffering, and more unnecessary pain that could have been easily avoided - pain that we, here in Ireland, are all too familiar with. To support women and girls in Poland you can donate to the pro choice movement's Abortion Without Boarders campaign, helping Polish women access abortion through travel, or to safely manage their abortions at home.  You can also donate to the Abortion Support Network here.