A travel opportunity
The protests in Poland worked – the government dropped the plan to pass a total abortion ban, and said it was the protests that did it. Polish abortion law is still horrific though.
A proposed total abortion ban in Poland will not be implemented, a member of the government has said, describing mass protests against the ban as a lesson in humility for the country’s leadership.
Jarosław Gowin, the minister of science and higher education, said on Wednesday that the protests by women had “caused us to think and taught us humility”.
The comments appear to indicate that Poland’s conservative leadership will withhold support from the highly unpopular proposal to ban abortions even in cases of rape, incest or when the mother’s life is at risk.
But the other kind? Still a big No.
Poland already outlaws abortions, with exceptions made only for rape, incest, badly damaged foetuses or if the mother’s life is at risk. In practice, though, some doctors refuse to perform even legal abortions, citing moral objections.
Polish women seeking abortions typically go to Germany or other neighbouring countries to get them or order abortion pills online.
Like Ireland, except for not having to cross a sea.
It’s not mentioned in the article, but the bill also threatened abortion providers with up to five years imprisonment. I think, but am not sure, that it also would have imposed harsh penalties on women who had illegal abortions. There was fear that miscarriages would be potentially criminalized, as they have been in El Salvador.
Lady Mondegreen:
The bill states that *any person* „who causes death of a conceived child, shall be liable to imprisonment for a term not shorter than 3 months and not exceeding 5 years”. However, it also states that if the deed is perpetrated by the mother of the child, the punishment can be extraordinarily mitigated or the court can revoke the punishment altogether.
Fortunately, we will never know what this would mean in practice. Less than one hour ago the project was officially and finally rejected by the Polish parliament. Even the members of the ruling party voted „no” … and now they have a lot of explaining to do (it is with sour amusement that I watch their antics.)