Poland: Abortion = Crime

 Lawmaking, Politics & Society

Poland: Abortion = Crime

 

Criminalising Abortion in Poland

 

 

© twojenovinki.pl Strajk Kobiet protester

 

 

Women, like me

Women like me, all around the world have been regulated on their right to decide over their own body, through abortion laws, reproduction policies and the right of the foetus itself. The most urging, nearest case of abortion ban, to me, is the case of Poland. I find it important to talk about this topic, because the Polish government purposefully delayed the publishing of the Constitutional Tribunal’s decision on banning abortion, specifically to wait until international media attention declines. Using my media, I will not let this topic go away so easily. 

 

The topic has been discussed across the Internet from many liberal-humanitarian- and conservative viewpoints. Yet, the Polish abortion ban has not been looked at through a criminalisation lens, while the Polish government is, in fact, criminalising abortion, and places women into the position of the cruel, the unlawful and the enemy.

 

 

What is it about abortion in Poland?

For those who are new to the topic, to recap, legal abortion has already been limited to the cases of foetal defect, rape and when the mother’s life was at danger. A complete ban was then proposed, and rejected in the Polish Sejm, but on the 22^nd of October, 2020, the Constitutional Tribunal in Poland declared that foetal defect may not be a reason for abortion anymore. This mode of legislation has bypassed the democratic procedure because the Constitutional Tribunal is not responsible to any other body, when it comes to their decision-making (Gliszczyńska-Grabias and Sadurski, 2021). Their words are law. Although the government has delayed the publishing of the legislation, due to the international attention and public unrest, it has became effective in January 2021.

 

Polish criminalisation of abortion

The Polish process of slowly but steadily banning all exemptions for a legal abortion, is a process of criminalisation. Although, instead of criminalising drugs and blaming groups on racial grounds (e.g., the case of crack cocaine and African Americans, or marijuana and Mexicans in the US) (Auerhahn, 1999), this criminalisation is on abortion and is against women. Although, Poland has historically been banning all abortion until 1932, and became more open to it up to the 1990s (Chazan, 1996). Yet, within the pro-human rights European Union, it is not acceptable to limit women rights through fabricated criminalisation.

 

© statista.com number of legal abortions in Poland by year, 1994-2020

 

Abortion ban: The problem represented to be

Through a criminalisation lens, it is important to bring in Bacchi’s (2009) ‘what’s the problem represented to be?’ (WPR) approach.

Bacchi's (2009) WPR-approach consists of a checklist of questions when analysing policy, and whether it is the best practice of the government to deal with an issue. To each case specifically, the following questions must be answered for analysis:

 

1.     ‘What's the 'problem' […] represented to be in a specific policy?

2.     What presuppositions or assumptions underlie this representation of the 'problem'?

3.     How has this representation of the 'problem' come about?

4.     What is left unproblematic in this problem representation? Where are the silences? Can the 'problem' be thought about differently?

5.     What effects are produced by this representation of the 'problem'?

6.     […] How could [this representation] be questioned, disrupted and replaced?’ (Bacchi, 2009, p. 2)

 

So, the problem represented to be is abortion that abuses the foetus and its rights.

 

So, does this abortion law provide an accurate problem representation?

Going through the checklist of questions of Bacchi (2009), the problem represented to be is abortion that harm the foetus. Presuppositions include human rights – the right to life, particularly – to both, the mother, and the foetus. The ‘problem’ of abortion assumes the foetus’ right to live overrules the mother’s right to decide over her own body. This representation has long religious historical roots in Poland, whereby abortion has been banned over a long period of time, and this position can now be supported with human rights arguments (the rights of the foetus) as well. Yet, the side of the mother is kept silent, in any case when her life is not at risk, or her pregnancy has not been the result of rape. The mother’s wish, preparedness, socio-economic status, state of mind, etc. are all ignored, and could be considered in framing the problem of abortion. 

The effects produced by this criminalised representation of abortion include increasing numbers in illegal, dangerous abortions and women travelling abroad, if travelling abroad to seek abortion is not affordable or accessible to the woman.

 

Unfortunately, since this representation of abortion is deeply rooted in Polish history, it is easy to defend and hard to question (Chazan, 1996). Yet, the European Union is a place where it should be possible, mobilising the young, more liberal, and pro-abortion generations of Poland.

 

But there is more to it: the social context in which this law has been developed

Auerhahn's (1999) theory of criminalization is a tool that extends Marx’s theory of the split labour market. Criminalisation, in this sense is a tool for the ‘upper’ labour class (those with higher wages), to limit the ‘lower’ labour class’ access, distribution and use of goods. Historically, this has included opium, cocaine (particularly crack cocaine), and marijuana. From blaming Chinese immigrant workers, to shaming the Mexican migrants for bringing the ‘danger’ of these drugs into the ‘upper-class’ US – and West.

 

In the case of Poland’s new abortion law proposal, social classes come through the access to contraception and the oppressed ‘class’ of women, when it comes to labour. Lower labour classes have less opportunity, information, and money to access these products, while upper-class labourers have easier access (Kubecka et al., 2019, p. 45). Similarly, it is common knowledge that women in general have historically been a ‘lower’ class, with limited rights. Therefore, limiting their right to abortion well resonates Auerhahn's (1999) theory of criminalisation as a tool to oppress the lower social classes – both economically and gender-wise.

 

Conclusion and takeaway

Step up against criminalising your decision over your own body, life, and future!

 

Although, as a Hungarian woman, I have found this topic urging in the light of Texas’s recent abortion law and the ongoing Strajk Kobiet (just in my neighbour!); there are other contemporary cases which would not necessarily align with Auerhahn's (1999) theory of criminalization. As an environmentalist vegan, my example is the planned EU ban on dairy alternatives’ word-use, such as ‘creamy’, ‘alternative to yoghurt’ or ‘-milk’. Isn’t Alpro the product of the upper-class? It is so much more expensive than dairy, so why is there a fight against this new ‘drug’ of dairy alternatives? That is a topic for another blog.