this is what’s happening in poland right now
yesterday (22.10.2020) the polish constitutional tribunal approved and passed a law that makes it impossible to terminate a pregnancy in case of lethal foetal defects.
polish abortion law is already one of the strictest ones in europe, making it possible in only three instances: when the pregnancy is threatening the life of the pregnant person, when the pregnancy is a result of r*pe, or in case of lethal foetal defects. the last one just got knocked off the list.
about 1.200 legal abortions are performed in poland, a country of nearly 38 mln people, in a year. most of those were performed because of lethal pregnancy defects. this means over a thousand people a year will be forced to deliver pregnancies that have little to no chances of survival. if the fetus lives, it’s parents will be forced to watch it die in enormous amounts of pain.
this ruling will actively hurt thousands of people. this ruling is a death certificate for so many people. there’s nearly no psychological help for you if you deliver a dead or lethally deformed fetus. there’s nearly no monetary help if you want your severely disabled child to get the medical care it needs. disabled people have been campaigning for years to get better disability benefits, to help pay for non-refundable treatments, to have better access to medical care. parents of disabled kids have been campaigning for years. they received next to nothing.
this ruling is not, as the polish goverment puts it, a step against eugenics. the polish goverment is, and has been for a while now, a strictly catholic, far-right, anti-choice, anti-equality, anti-LGBT creature that makes our lives here miserable. they serve only their own political benefit.
the night of the ruling, thousands of people poured out on the street in the capital city of warsaw in protest and headed to the house of the ruling law and justice party leader, jaroslaw kaczynski. they were met with resistance from riot cops, pepper sprayed, and detained. several people are injured. more protests are planned thoughout the country.
as a polish person, i’m beyond angry. i’m sad, i’m hopeless. i’m furious.
https://secure.avaaz.org/campaign/pl/solidarity_with_polish_women_32/?zygljqb a petition you can sign
https://zrzutka.pl/55g5gx here you can donate to abortion dream team, a team of polish women providing abortion help those who need it
+48 22 29 22 597 here is the number to abortion without borders, who can provide help and information
if you have any more resources please feel free to add onto this post
