ABORTION IN POLAND: A QUESTION OF INDIVIDUAL RESPONSIBILITY AND ETHICS

Abstract

Is abortion a fundamental right? While some argue that it is other argue that it is not. From Article 3 “Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.” (UN General Assembly 1948) by the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, it is given the freedom of choice therefore women themselves should be able to make this decision. Today in around 1/3 of all the countries in the world abortion is legal and upon request, 2/3 is legal if it is based on socioeconomic grounds or to preserve health, and 1/3 it is only legal when the women’s life is in danger or prohibited altogether. In Eastern Europe the only country that has not have legalized abortion based upon request is Poland. Today in Poland abortion is only legal if there is fetal impairment, incest or rape. This year in October the ruling right-wing party PiS (Law and Justice) proposed ban of abortion under any circumstances this resulted to massive protests across Poland where hundreds of thousands of women dressed in black took over the streets expressing their anger for this bill. The protests were a success. Just a couple of days after the bill was proposed, PiS members themselves threw out the legislation, and after couple more days the Parliament threw out the legislation fully. Although the proposition was by a group of citizens, PiS was the one who carried out the proposal. To understand better the whole issue of abortion, we have to take a look back to 1989 when socialism fell.