Poland just made it legal to torture women.
abortion law in Poland was already the strictest in Europe, abortion was allowed in only 3 cases:
- if the pregnancy was a result of rape or incest
- if the mother's health was at risk
- in case of foetal defects.
another problem is that there is something called "conscience clause" among Polish doctors which means that they can deny a patient certain treatment if it's against their conscience or beliefs (yes, it mostly applies to conservative, catholic doctors). some doctors went as far as not telling women about foetal defects until it was too late to terminate pregnancy. what's more, abortion in case of rape happens very rarely, since it's difficult to prove rape in the eyes of Polish law.
in 2019, only 1100 legal abortions took place in Poland, a country populated by 38 milion people. 98% of these abortions happened because of foetal defects.
on October 22nd 2020, Poland's top court ruled abortion due to foetal defects inconstitional, basically making abortion illegal.
Polish women will be forced to give birth to children with basically no chance to live. they will be tortured physically and mentally. rich women will be able to visit neighbouring countries to have abortion there but there are plenty of women who will have unsafe, illegal abortions, endangering their lives.
there are protests happening all over the country. not for the first time though, we've been protesting abortion ban for few years now. there's a sense of solidarity among us but the truth is, we're afraid.