The letter “Why do I have to fight again?”

Here is a letter outlining the thoughts of a mother and daughter who wish to remain anonymous [excerpts with context and introduction are included].

Task: Analyze the letter and discuss what has changed and what has not changed in relation to abortion issues in different European societies?

2022

Mother and daughter are human rights activists. The mother worked in education, the daughter works in the third sector. Their work spans decades, but is united by a common goal: to protect human rights, regardless of gender, origin, or place of residence.

 The mother’s story shows how, while gaining civil rights and freedoms after the 1989 transformation in Poland, we, as women, suddenly lose the bundles of rights that belong to us.

In the daughter’s story we can see the motifs which in the Polish public debate point to the punishment of women for being women.

Context

We live in the belief that our human rights really exist and that they belong to us. Indeed, they are enshrined in national and international legislation, but in extreme and even everyday situations, what we are entitled to may prove impossible to protect or may become a target for attack and move to the background.

In social media we can easily find radical groups that are for total abortion and liberal groups that want the right to abortion for every woman.

Mother (age 66)

In the time before the transformation abortion was available. In communist Poland the right to abortion was gradually liberalised.  We did not regard it as something that could be taken away from us, because we were fighting for freedoms and human rights in a country which limited them and controlled us.

You also have to remember what those times were like and how one looked at a pregnant girl. Unwanted pregnancy was a shameful subject, it was socially stigmatized and often associated with strong stigmatization of the woman, the child and her family. Of course, over the years this ‘traditional’ approach has been transformed.

Then, after the transformation and Poland’s accession to the EU, a lot of things changed, there was a greater sense of legal security in a situation where the fetus threatens the life and functioning of the mother. And suddenly boom… after the regulations had recently been tightened, the world turned upside down….

Many times, together with my daughter, I took part in demonstrations for the liberalization of the anti-abortion law in Poland.  Women – mothers like me-retired women and young women-have woken up. For five years now we have been taking to the streets of our cities. We have been showing that we are a huge part of this society, but as you can see, to no avail, because nothing has changed… I never imagined that a democratic country ruled mostly by men could become so heartless, insensitive to the suffering of women-wives, mothers, daughters, neighbours. Of course, women are also in power, but some of them tacitly consent to the curtailment of their own rights.

I never imagined that my daughter, a citizen of the world, would see her human rights restricted in the form of a ban on abortion in most cases.

Although we have a strongly polarized society, there is a growing group of women in cities for whom the arguments for legalizing abortion are crucial to respecting their rights and their social security. Unfortunately, in 2021 and 2022 we hear about women who died in hospitals because no one wanted to save their lives under the current law.

Daughter (31)

Recent years related to closing our mouths as women and taking away our rights have been a very difficult period in my life. This is vividly illustrated by the ruling of the Constitutional Court in 2020. The Constitutional Tribunal ruled that abortion due to “high probability of severe and irreversible fetal disability or incurable disease threatening its life” is incompatible with the Polish Constitution.

 I am young, I have my life ahead of me. But in the back of my mind I feel fear connected with regulations which take away my freedom of choice and infringe my right to health and life protection.

How can I feel safe when women at risk of pregnancy die in Polish hospitals although there is time, possibilities and resources to help them effectively. It is impossible to sleep well when the media report yet another death of a young pregnant woman who went to hospital to save her life and the life of her future child. And when I read that she did not leave the hospital alive, no one helped her, no one referred to her human right to life and health protection….

We are in the 21st century and it is acceptable to kill future mothers in the name of saving the fetus. This is something called “fatal outcome,” which can happen to absolutely any woman who gets pregnant in this country. That’s my perspective, and meanwhile the state’s perspective is forcing pregnant women to be heroic.

That’s why the ‘black protest’ is our opposition to the power that tramples our rights. The black protest is the largest number of people taking to the streets since my mother’s strikes, since “Solidarity”.