The Polish ruling party\u2019s leader, Jaros\u0142aw Kaczy\u0144ski, gave an interview to Wprost magazine titled \u201cEven a mildly intelligent person can organize an abortion abroad\u201d (Olczyk and Mizio\u0142ek 2021a). In the interview he openly points to the possibility of going abroad to obtain an abortion as an easy way of circumventing the abortion ban. In the same interview, Kaczy\u0144ski denies that Poland in fact has an \u201cabortion ban\u201d, or that the recent legal changes (eliminating embryopatological indications for legal abortion effective January 2021) in any way \u201cthreaten the interests of women\u201d (Olczyk and Mizio\u0142ek 2021b). Kaczy\u0144ski also mentions that women in Germany need \u201cvarious certificates\u201d in order to access abortion, making a parallel between German and Polish regulations, despite the latter being one of the most restrictive in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By citing the ease of organizing an abortion abroad, the party leader, usually a skilled strategist, angered many environments. Last autumn Polish women have organized protests of unprecedented scale against further criminalization of abortion, which was passed regardless, by way of a Constitutional Tribunal ruling. Kaczy\u0144ski\u2019s statement can easily be read as patronizing: the leader suggested, that a total ban is easy to circumvent, therefore there is no cause for social discontent. This suggestion, best described as gaslighting, did not appease the public. Some pointed out that not everyone can afford to travel abroad, and leave their families, jobs and responsibilities to seek medical care in a foreign country, especially during the pandemic. In the context of expanding criminalization, it was also strange for a politician to ensure citizens that they can escape the law by leaving the country. This statement amounted to admission that abortion law is a dead letter law<\/strong>: abortion is forbidden, yet we all know women have it, only not in Poland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On the other side of the political spectrum, a fundamentalist think-tank \u201cOrdo Iuris\u201d, rooted in the Tradition Family Property network, responded by formulating a new goal: putting an absolute stop to abortion migration and at-home abortion (Waloch 2021; Kwa\u015bniewski 2021). This ambitious declaration came shortly after the think tank\u2019s previous postulates were realized (embryopathological indications removed as grounds for legal abortion). It\u2019s a sign that the anti-choice movement,<\/strong> in which Ordo Iuris plays an important role, will always formulate new, further reaching goals. It is therefore a new kind of actor on the Polish political scene, that makes the Catholic Church\u2019s hierarchy look moderate in comparison<\/strong>. The ruling party, accustomed to a peaceful co-existence with the Catholic Church hierarchy, finds itself in a new, inconvenient situation: Ordo Iuris raises postulates based on ideas of \u201ctradition\u201d and \u201cChristianity\u201d; it is hard for Law and Justice to reject their postulates, as they base their program on similar ideas. On the other hand, the changes demanded by Ordo Iuris, particularly further tightening the abortion ban, are not popular among the majority of the citizens. The political struggle around embryopathological indications in the autumn of 2020 brought about political protests of unprecedented scale, and cost the ruling party about 9 points in the polls. The new, fundamentalist political force in the Polish political scene is forcing the ruling party\u2019s hand, and drawing more attention to a controversial topic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The third, maybe unintended result the Wprost interview is that abortion tourism is becoming even more visible, present in the public debate. The interview is one of the first official statements in which a Polish member of the Parliament acknowledges abortion tourism and its place in maintaining the abortion ban. Without the possibilities of circumventing abortion criminalization, it could not be sustained. The social reality of abortion criminalization rests on simultaneous stigmatization and accessibility of abortion. Accessing abortion is harder in Poland, than in countries, where is not criminalized, meaning it costs women more time, money and effort to overcome stigmatization and find an acceptable solution. Nevertheless, criminalization does not make abortion impossible, and therefore the legal fiction can be maintained. This arrangement allowed the government, the Church and the society maintain a delicate equilibrium between public condemnation of abortion on the symbolic level, and the clandestine, privatized, matter-of-fact practice of abortion in the reproductive lives of women in Poland. The recent events are marked by intensified efforts to unmask that unspoken status quo, and change the place of abortion in the Polish public life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Article by Dr. Agata Che\u0142stowska<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kwa\u015bniewski, Jerzy. Newsletter. 2021. \u201cZatrzymujemy Promocj\u0119 Przest\u0119pczo\u015bci Aborcyjnej (Newsletter Ordo Iuris),\u201d May 25, 2021. kontakt@ordoiuris.pl.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Olczyk, Eliza, and Joanna Mizio\u0142ek. 2021a. \u201cJaros\u0142aw Kaczy\u0144ski Dla \u201eWprost\u201d: Ka\u017cdy \u015arednio Rozgarni\u0119ty Cz\u0142owiek Mo\u017ce Za\u0142atwi\u0107 Aborcj\u0119 Za Granic\u0105.\u201d Wprost<\/em>, May. https:\/\/www.wprost.pl\/kraj\/10449780\/jaroslaw-kaczynski-dla-wprost-kazdy-moze-zalatwic-aborcje-za-granica.html.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2014\u2014\u2014. 2021b. \u201cJaros\u0142aw Kaczy\u0144ski Dla \u201eWprost\u201d: Ka\u017cdy \u015arednio Rozgarni\u0119ty Cz\u0142owiek Mo\u017ce Za\u0142atwi\u0107 Aborcj\u0119 Za Granic\u0105.\u201d Wprost<\/em>, May. https:\/\/www.wprost.pl\/kraj\/10449780\/jaroslaw-kaczynski-dla-wprost-kazdy-moze-zalatwic-aborcje-za-granica.html.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Waloch, Natalia. 2021. \u201cKoniec z Aborcj\u0105 Polek Za Granic\u0105 Oraz w Domu, Koniec z Pigu\u0142k\u0105 \u2018Dzie\u0144 Po\u2019. Ordo Iuris Szykuje Blitzkrieg Nowych Przepis\u00f3w.\u201d Wysokie Obcasy<\/em>, April 25, 2021. https:\/\/www.wysokieobcasy.pl\/wysokie-obcasy\/7,163229,27125283,koniec-z-aborcja-polek-za-granica-oraz-w-domu-koniec-z-pigulka.html.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Polish ruling party\u2019s leader, Jaros\u0142aw Kaczy\u0144ski, gave an interview to Wprost magazine titled \u201cEven a mildly intelligent person can organize an abortion abroad\u201d (Olczyk and Mizio\u0142ek 2021a). In the interview he openly points to the possibility of going abroad to obtain an abortion as an easy way of circumventing the abortion ban. In the … Continue reading “Even a mildly intelligent person can organize an abortion abroad”: Kaczy\u0144ski’s statement on abortion tourism and the legal fiction of criminalisation<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":271,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,1],"tags":[16,20],"class_list":["post-209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-abortion","category-allgemein","tag-abortion","tag-abortion-tourism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.hu-berlin.de\/crimscapes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.hu-berlin.de\/crimscapes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.hu-berlin.de\/crimscapes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.hu-berlin.de\/crimscapes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.hu-berlin.de\/crimscapes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www2.hu-berlin.de\/crimscapes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":212,"href":"https:\/\/www2.hu-berlin.de\/crimscapes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209\/revisions\/212"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.hu-berlin.de\/crimscapes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.hu-berlin.de\/crimscapes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.hu-berlin.de\/crimscapes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.hu-berlin.de\/crimscapes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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