Abortion Law in Poland and Legitimacy
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Abortion Law in Poland and Its Democratic Legitimacy
Abortion is a controversial issue whose democratic legitimacy varies across the states. The issue lacks the grounds of agreement among two polar aspects, usually a matter of life and death. Besides, its uncertainty of complication makes the grounds of agreement more challenging. Abortion describes the act of deliberate termination of pregnancy. In this regard, abortion has ignited Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal debates over whether it should be treated as human rights or as an illegal issue worthy of a total ban. As such, the matter acquaints equal supporters on both perspectives as life and death issues. While abortion is legalized in most of the European countries, Poland implemented a stringent anti-abortion law. On this note, the purpose of this paper is to analyze the Polish viewpoints of this anti-abortion law while analyzing its democratic legitimacy.
Controversies about the legal status of abortion persist as countries pursue democratization. However, the issue intensifies, especially in countries that pursue a transition from authoritarian forms of government. During East-Central Europe’s regime changes in 1989, abortion intensified in Poland, and its legislation was problematized (Zolkos, 2006). Characteristically, the debates on abortion centered on human dignity, social justice, the alleged dichotomy of the public and private, ethical consensus in democratic communities, and the church’s role in the democratic consolidation process. As such, the proponents of restrictive abortion legislation argued based on physical integrity, rights to the unborn, and human dignity while the liberal adversaries adopted a negative discourse on rights to privacy, particularly reproductive rights.
Nonetheless, while achieving a middle ground on the issue of abortion seemed a challenge, the parliament implemented the ‘Law of Family Planning’ in 1993, which further prohibited abortion and sanctioned it under three stringently controlled conditions; severe damage of the fetus, a threat to health or life other the woman, and judicial confirmation than the causant factor of the pregnancy was a criminal act (Zolkos, 2006). The church expressed reasonable satisfaction, and there was no political will to fully meet either group’s demands. Different groups of people have retained their negative perspectives and delayed acceptance of this rule in the country, attracting frequent demonstrations to abolish the law. In this regard, abortion remains a controversial issue, and the debates are set to resurface in the future.
Arguments against Anti-abortion Law
Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal’s issuance of the anti-abortion ruling is termed illegal by this law’s proponents. This attributes to the grounds on which the law was implemented through a political power play by the current ruling Pis (Law and Justice) party, which unconstitutionally evicted the former judges and replaced those more amenable to the party’s political interests (Fraser, 2020). In this regard, the former judges have not yet accepted such eviction and feel that their rights to freedom of expression were violated. While this remains a subject of fundamental democratic contestation, the European Commission instills concerns about the current proceedings to infringe the rule of law in Poland. On this note, the proponents of abortion perceive the anti-abortion law as illegally implemented to serve specific interests while violating the majority citizens’ rights of expression (Nowicka, 2008). In any case, a legit law should balance the interests of the people it rules without political prejudice.
It is Inhumane
The question of medical decisions is more of a private than a public issue. The proponents argue that the judgment provisions of the anti-abortion law outpace the philosophical question of the ‘right to life’ versus ‘right to choose’ (Nowicka, 2008). In other words, banning abortion on the grounds of foetal anomaly, the Constitutional Tribunal interferes with the women’s privacy and rights to make medical decisions in liaison with the medical provider and the loved ones. On this note, the ban subjects women to carry a non-viable pregnancy to full term, which may initiate exhaustive psychological and physical torture to the woman, family, and community. Besides, some women may lack the emotional capacity to adhere to this rule and hence violate by seeking medical assistance to abort the pregnancies, which depict incongruity in the fetus (Maierhofer, 2017). In such cases, this subjects other participants such as partners, family members, and doctors as victims of crime. These victims end up serving prison sentences for assisting in terminating a pregnancy whose owner (the woman) allegedly lured them into the act.
Prompts Violation of Human Rights
Human beings are entitled to human rights to aid their existence and exercise of life. Human rights are universal and inherent to everyone, including the right to life, health, work, and food. In this regard, the adversaries of anti-abortion laws describe this law as a beginning of violation of human rights. This attributes to the argument that this law’s success in Poland would act as a test bed for reactionary ideas that would later be exported to other countries. Indicatively, the anti-abortion law was implemented against the majority’s will, and hence democracy was demeaned (Nowicka, 2008). As such, it is possible that other states would embrace ultra-conservative agendas in pushing for specific accomplishments. Such reveals the emergence of a trend where fundamental rights would be eroded through pseudo-legal processes, targeting women and minority groups. Therefore, unless the Europeans arbitrate this trend in Poland through the available tools and uphold democracy, the same fate looms for various other European countries. Eventually, the essence of human rights would lose meaning and initiate authoritative governance across majority countries.
Arguments for Anti-abortion Law
The Church
The church plays an integral role in defining Poland’ moral values. Such is evidenced through its contribution in the Poland’s implementation of a nearly total ban on abortion which prompted different reactions. Although demonstrations continue to emerge, the government remains impassive on the decisions, and reliance on the church is undeniable. This follows various implications, such as pursuing the Christian virtues, which despise abortion as an evil act that attempts to end human life (Stensvold, 2015). Poland is a Christian state; hence, most government decisions consider the church virtues before getting implemented. Christians regard human life as a sacred gift from God that begins at conception and whose attempt to terminate (abortion) is sinful destruction of His creation. In this regard, the church which defines the Polish population embraces the ‘pro-life’ approach and attributes that abortion promotes the violation of rights to life, especially to the unborn child who is usually innocent (Stensvold, 2015). Therefore, legalizing abortion would pose as persecuting moral values of the country at large.
Defiance of Humanity Rights
According to Zolkos (2006), abortion denies the common rights of the unborn child’s right to life and humiliates personal integrity, hence a dangerous crime. Abortion is described as exterminating a defenseless, innocent person, an act that is unjustifiable through any means. In any case, the human right to life is the most fundamental because it paves the way to access other rights. Therefore, abortion consequently denies the foetus the access to other human rights. In other words, concurrently permitting contravention of the right to life, which is indispensable for the other human rights renders challenges in defending other human rights (Zolkos, 2006). Therefore, while people can give life to offspring, the consequent right to end the same life is morally unethical. Characteristically, an ‘unborn’ child is designated as a recipient of human rights, and hence, anti-abortion law is vital to fight for such rights. Therefore, supporting abortion would render the other rights of human beings meaningless and poise a potential tendency to break them to meet particular interests at the majority’s expense.
Health Risk
Further, abortion is termed as a risky process. It can instill complex health issues in the mother as abortion may turn unsafe at times. In Poland, abortion influenced about 150,000 abortion-related deaths in 2016, which multiplies to possible 300,000 deaths, including the fetus (Fraser, 2020). In this regard, abortion is a crucial drive to violate human rights to life for both the foetus and the mother. Considering the high mortality rates prompted by abortion, the proponents of anti-abortion law suggested its implementation to minimize such risks. While carrying a full-term pregnancy could result in a different human being, it is worthwhile to induce abortion, which can end the lives of two human beings (mother and the fetus). Besides, the abortion process increases the risks of infertility and ectopic pregnancies, limiting women’s chances of conceiving when the need arises—such results from infections in the womb that could quickly spread to the fallopian tube.
Threat to Future Generation
Women are highly regarded in Poland as the pillars of society in terms of bringing life to existence through birth. Traditional values revere women for motherhood, and hence, legalizing abortion would pose a threat to future generations whose resources requiring exploitation would outpace the available workforce (Maierhofer, 2017). in other words, this would render reckless sexual behaviors among women because they can quickly secure abortion and hence normalize the trend, eventually leading to a tremendous decrease in population. On this note, the anti-abortion law is crucial to ensure that women are responsible for their sexual behaviors and assume responsibility for their pregnancies to ensure a promising future. In other words, legalizing abortion poises a trend where few women would be willing to give birth while the majority opt for this action.
Conclusion
Retrospectively, the topic of abortion raises critical concerns in Poland. With an almost equal number of proponents to the opponents of the anti-abortion rule, tensions continue to emerge regarding the government’s most appropriate decision. The paper highlighted various proponents’ various issues, including the church, to advocate for the anti-abortion rule. Similarly, the opponents, predominantly the women activists, express strong points as to why this rule should be abolished. In both cases, democratic legitimacy remains the epicenter of such advocacies.
References
Fraser, O. (2020). Polish tribunal rules all abortion: ‘a violation of the constitutional right to life’ https://www.humanrightspulse.com/mastercontentblog/polish-tribunal-rules-all-abortion-a-violation-of-the-constitutional-right-to-life
Maierhofer, W. (2017). Abortion democracy: Sarah Diehl’s advocacy documentary film for women’s rights in Poland and South Africa. Sexual health Issues, 1(81), 1-7. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Waltraud_Maierhofer/publication/331472067_Abortion_Democracy_Sarah_Diehl’s_advocacy_documentary_film_for_women’s_rights_in_Poland_and_South_Africa_Sexual_Health_Issues_1_2017_1-7/links/5c7ab5fca6fdcc4715a9838f/Abortion-Democracy-Sarah-Diehls-advocacy-documentary-film-for-womens-rights-in-Poland-and-South-Africa-Sexual-Health-Issues-1-2017-1-7.pdf
Nowicka, W. (2008). The Anti-Abortion Act in Poland. The legal land actual state. In Reproductive rights in Poland. The effects of the anti-abortion law. Report 2008. Federation for Women and Family Planning: Warsaw. https://uniteforreprorights.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Poland_report-Federa_2008.pdf
Stensvold, A. (2015). A history of pregnancy in Christianity: From original sin to contemporary abortion debates. Routledge. https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=yjzeCQAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=Christianity+and+Abortion&ots=xsC9YlKfvP&sig=JNEQpf1GAXLnA4mSJVP7rP64Wbo
Zolkos, M. (2006). Human rights and democracy in the Polish abortion debates: concepts, discourses, subversions. Essex Human Rights Review, 3(1), 1-21. http://projects.essex.ac.uk/ehrr/V3N1/Zolkos.pdf