Abortion is practically illegal in Poland since 1993. The state policy is to limit the number of legal abortions through the law, and other means. This implies a vast practice of many women to seek back-street abortions, which is costly, and often dangerous for their health. The media, politicians, church officials, and pro-life movements satiate the public sphere with a language that is hostile to women who had terminated a pregnancy. Hence, during the 15 years of the new law, abortion has become a taboo, and women often don’t talk about it even between themselves, afraid of condemnation. In consequence, the only images and ideas present in the public sphere are those of fetuses, macabre, and guilt-struck women. Emotions and experiences of real women are absent from this discussion. As long as politicians speak, and women keep silent, no changes can be made in the current policy.
Abortion, contraceptives and generally – birth control – became a restricted good, the access to which strenghtens and widens the economic injustice – only upper class women can actually afford abortion (it costs more, than a monthly average salary), contraception, infertility treatement or All these services are of course available on the private healthcare (black)market, which makes them less available for poor women.
We created our group in order to propose a three-day event called Reproductive Justice Days (Dni Sprawiedliwości Reprodukcyjnej), where various women from different backgrounds could use their own voice to express their own body experiences and opinions about the current women reproductive rights policies and practice and the emotional, legal and financial economies that follow.
