«It may be difficult to get abortions in Poland, but we have our ways,» Polish feminist Krystyna Kacpura says. “If we see a continuation of the situation where, until the age of 25, young women drink as much as men their age, then there will be no children,” Kaczyński said on Saturday. The Legion would not be where it is today without the unending spirit, enthusiasm and commitment of the 37 (and counting!) women who have been at the helm of this organization. With the money it raises, the Legion supports Polish and American https://fracturedstate.net/european-women/polish-women/ cultural and educational projects and thus the heritage of its members. The needs of new immigrants from Poland are addressed through assistance to the Polish American Association and the Polish American Congress Charitable Foundation. During World War II, the Legion sent food and clothing to Polish prisoners of war, and to the Polish Army Hospital in Great Britain in the form of medical equipment, hospital beds, and ambulances.
- With 237 seats in the Sejm and 66 in the Senate, it is currently the largest party in the Polish parliament.
- Even then, women say it’s extremely hard to find a doctor who will perform the procedure.
- Critics argued that Polish women were hesitant to have children for financial reasons as well as out of fear over abortion restrictions introduced by the PiS.
- The government has undermined efforts to combat gender-based violence, including by initiating Poland’s withdrawal from a landmark European convention on violence against women, the Istanbul Convention.
- A women’s rights group in Poland on Monday urged people to demonstrate after the country’s ruling party leader claimed that Poland’s low birthrate is partly caused by young women drinking too much alcohol.
- The ruling came as Covid-19 pandemic restrictions made travel for health care prohibitively difficult and costly.
There have since been cases of pregnant women dying even though a risk to the woman’s life remains a legal grounds for abortion under the current law. Women’s rights advocates say such cases occur because doctors are afraid to terminate pregnancies even when the woman’s life might be at risk, fearing legal consequences.
The approach was inspired by similar protests among Icelandic women in Oct. 1975, when an estimated 90% of women refused to work or do house chores to call out wage discrepancies and unfair employment practices in the country. A day before Black Monday in Poland, a video circulated of women in Iceland expressing support for the Polish protests. WARSAW, Poland — A women’s rights group in Poland on Monday urged people to demonstrate after the country’s ruling party leader claimed that Poland’s low birthrate is partly caused by young women drinking too much alcohol.
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While strengthening allied defense and deterrence is rightfully supported by voters in Poland, the left can still intervene in this momentum. To break right-wing hegemony, it can advocate the rebuilding of civil defense around local citizens’ groups and work towards embedding civic, egalitarian, and democratic values in military volunteer-defense channels. In a recent survey commissioned by the Polish portal Defence24, 41 percent of women declared interest in undergoing basic military training if available. This percentage could have been much higher had respondents been questioned also about civil-defence training. And it is these on-the-ground sentiments which the illiberal right has effectively tapped.
As Polish Women Flock Towards Volunteer Defense, the Left Remains Inept
The overall sense of geopolitical stability after 1989 saw the reduction and professionalisation of the Polish army, and the gradual detachment of citizens from the realm of defence. This professionalised defence has long remained a ‘man’s business’, despite military careers being open to women following accession to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. In 2016, women constituted fewer than 5 per cent of army personnel and existing regulations engendered military service as a male civic duty.
The new data from CBOS show that 17% of women aged 18 to 45 plan to have children in the next three or four years while 15% say they plan to do so in the longer term. Meanwhile, 68% say that either they are not planning to have children or they do not know whether they will. Only 32% of women in Poland aged between 18 and 45 say they are planning to have children, down from 41% in 2017, new data from state research agency CBOS shows. The number of births per woman in Poland has plummeted from 3 children per woman in 1960 to 1.2 in 2003, according to the World Bank.
The quality of life of the participants, measured by the WHOQOL-BREF, was lower in all domains than in the general population . The obtained results are in accordance with a number of previous studies examining quality of life in women with lipedema in international samples . In our study, quality of life was predicted by the severity of symptoms related to pain, heaviness, and swelling. Further analyses showed that depression severity mediated the relationship between symptom severity and quality of life. The higher the severity of symptoms such as fat tissue pain, leg heaviness, muscle stiffness, swelling, and muscle and joint pain, the higher the severity of depression, which leads to lower quality of life.
Every year thousands of women leave Poland to access abortion care in other European countries, while others import medical abortion pills or seek extra-legal abortion in Poland. Polish women, particularly those in difficult socio-economic situations, have to depend on the crucial help from civil society organizations, with often limited resources.
“It may be difficult to get abortions in Poland, but we have our ways,” one of Poland’s leading feminists, Krystyna Kacpura, head of the Warsaw-based Federation for Women and Family Planning, said in a series of interviews. The Poles have a long history of resisting their rulers, including those they have elected, like the conservative Law and Justice party, which was swept into power in 2015. Official statistics put the current birthrate at just over 1.3 children for each woman – a figure below both the EU average and the threshold of generational renewal. Kaczyński added that he was not in favour of women having children at a young age because “a woman has to mature into a mother”.
Contrary to the assurance of the Polish authorities, access to legal abortion in the country is currently negligible — in 2021, only 107 abortions were performed among a population of 40 million. And the restrictive legislation also has a chilling effect on doctors, who refuse to perform abortions out of fear of criminal consequences. Since the implementation of this barbaric law, at least six women have died because they were deprived of life-saving abortions — and those are just the known victims. Kaja visited an online forum for women seeking abortion in Poland, and was referred to Dr. Janusz Rudzinski, a Polish doctor who has been practicing in Germany for over 35 years. Kaja called Rudzinski — known to accept women’s calls at all times of day — and he told her to come to his clinic in Prenzlau, Germany. Despite her pain, Kaja drove around 200 miles from her village in Poland to Rudzinski’s clinic across the border.
