(Image source: Chip Somodevilla for Getty Images)

As the prospect of reversing Roe v. Wade unfolds in the United States, pro-choice advocates are simultaneously mobilized and despondent. This is true especially in states that have already introduced severe restrictions on abortion access and are looking to tighten them even further. In those places, travel to another state may soon become the only option to terminate a pregnancy. This is compounded by the fact that the capacity of abortion providers in pro-choice-majority states has not, on the whole, increased in anticipation of a potential surge of patients from states where new restrictions are expected.

Watching the United States reverse its legal protections for abortion reminds us of our native country, Poland, where conservative politicians and religious leaders aligned to effectively ban abortion. We are members of the first generation of Polish women since 1956 whose reproductive lives have been shaped by the looming possibility of being forced to carry pregnancies against our will. What we have witnessed in Poland provides important lessons for American pro-choice advocates and may foretell where the United States is heading as abortion access dramatically declines in some parts of the country.

***

Poland has a volatile history of abortion laws. From 1956 until 1993, as a member of the Soviet bloc, Poland guaranteed relatively easy access to abortion. Yet, since the 1970s Polish Catholic organizations, supported by the Catholic Church, have lobbied to limit that access. In 1993, after the collapse of communism, democratic elections introduced conservative Catholic parties into the Polish parliament. Amid protests in major cities against the proposed legislation, they passed a bill that significantly restricted access to abortion, allowing for termination only in three cases: serious risk to the mother’s life or health; diagnosis of severe, permanent, or fatal malformations of the fetus; or pregnancy resulting from a criminal act, such as rape or incest (in this case, termination was allowed only until the 12th week of pregnancy and a prosecutor was required to confirm that a criminal act had occurred). Pro-choice advocates organized as the Federation for Women and Family Planning (FWFP), while Catholic organizations continued to advocate for a full abortion ban (even though, technically, Catholic Canon law allows prioritizing the life of the mother over the life of the fetus). The bill came to be known as the “abortion compromise,” reflecting the opposing views held by Catholic and conservative politicians who wanted a complete ban, and left-wing politicians who wanted to maintain broader access to abortion.

Prior to 1993, a family’s difficult socioeconomic situation was an acceptable reason to terminate a pregnancy. But since 1993, this consideration was no longer recognized as legitimate. People carrying out abortions or helping women access abortions that did not fall within one of the three legally-recognized exceptions faced up to three years in prison.

Notably, debates about the new abortion law were held in a parliament that was dominated by male politicians, with women holding only 10% of the seats. As many commentators observed, the legislators were not interested in women’s views on abortion and rejected calls for a national referendum on the matter. Women active in the opposition were politically disempowered after the collapse of communism. So-called “women’s issues” were not a priority in the dominant political agendas that focused on issues perceived as more important  — primarily, the preservation of the new, fragile democracy, “decommunization,” and economic reforms. At the time, a significant majority of Poles were fairly supportive of the right to abortion. However, their views gradually changed as conservative political and religious groups lobbied against abortion in the media (of which a significant proportion is influenced or controlled by the Catholic Church). Catholic teachings on the subject continued to influence Polish citizens through Catholic instruction in public schools. In 2006, for the first time, more Polish people expressed support for an abortion ban than the right to abortion.

In 2020, again amid mass protests, the Polish Constitutional Tribunal (equivalent to the Supreme Court in the United States) issued a legally binding opinion that the diagnosis of a fetus with fatal malformations is not constitutional grounds to terminate a pregnancy, thereby tightening already severe restrictions. Catholic leaders celebrated this decision as a partial victory in a decades-long battle to ban abortion entirely. Many Protestant churches in Poland, including the Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession, the Polish Pentecostal Church, and the Baptist Church of Poland, also consider abortion a “sin” and have added their support to the ban.

(Image source: Zuma Wire/Rex/Shutterstock)

1,076 “legal” abortions were carried out in Poland in 2020 before this new restriction went into place. The real number of pregnancy terminations is unknown. FWFP estimates it at 150 thousand annually. Women resort to underground abortions, buy abortion pills abroad, and travel to other countries for abortion procedures. A recent report estimates that 34 thousand women from Poland accessed abortion services abroad just in 2021. Even those who technically qualify for a legal abortion tend to prefer going abroad, given that Polish doctors and hospitals often create illegal red tape so they do not have to terminate a pregnancy. The criminal justice system also impedes abortion access by delaying the process that establishes whether the pregnancy is the result of a criminal act, which still constitutes grounds for a legal abortion in Poland.

In September 2021, a mother of three died as a result of being denied an abortion to which she had a legal right. Izabela (her surname was not disclosed by the media) carried a dead fetus in her body for nine days, as doctors driven by fear of breaking the new law refused to terminate the pregnancy. Izabela contracted sepsis and died. She lived a mere 40 miles from Ostrava in the Czech Republic, where women’s clinics advertise abortion services in Polish. According to FWFP, this was the first publicly known case of death resulting from the denial of abortion linked directly to the new law. There are no reliable statistics on the number of women who have died or become disabled in the aftermath of the 2020 Constitutional Tribunal ruling, but there have been several media reports of similar cases.

***

In neighboring Ukraine, abortion is more accessible. Abortion on request is free and legal until 12 weeks of pregnancy. Between 12 and 26 weeks, abortion is also permitted in cases of rape, incest, and fetal abnormalities. Abortion pills can be purchased in Ukrainian pharmacies over the counter.

Access to abortion has recently taken on new urgency for many Ukrainians and Ukrainian refugees. Since the Russian invasion began in February, Russian soldiers have sexually assaulted countless Ukrainian women and girls. The fate of women in the town of Bucha – gang-raped and raped in front of children – shocked the world. Anticipating that some of the refugees coming into Poland would have been raped, be pregnant and needing abortion, Polish pro-choice organizations brought this to the attention of the Polish government and appealed for better availability of care and an acknowledgement that abortions in Poland are legal for raped women. These voices were ignored. Consequently, some women who became pregnant after Russian soldiers raped them chose to stay in Ukraine, rather than flee to safety from the war, so they could terminate the pregnancies.

Between March 1 and April 20, 250 Ukrainian women who fled to Poland sought help accessing abortions from Polish pro-choice organizations. Some of them were able to acquire abortion pills; other were assisted with travel to Western Europe where abortion access is more readily available. The process is costly and the organizations are not able to help all women who need it. In addition, Polish activists assisting Ukrainian refugees do so at great personal risk – one of them, Justyna Wydrzyńska, was recently charged with illegally aiding an abortion and faces up to three years in prison.

Polish anti-abortion activists also raised alarm after the Russian invasion, correctly recognizing that unwanted pregnancies and demand for abortion increase during military conflict. The most notorious anti-abortion campaigner in Poland, Kaja Godek, is well known for attacking Polish feminist and LGBTQ organizations. Godek’s foundation, called Life and Family, distributed leaflets among Ukrainian refugees stating that “abortion is a murder and the worst crime.” The pamphlets encouraged women to call the police if anyone offered them abortion services, and featured pictures of bloodied, dismembered fetuses. The leaflets did not mention that Polish law allows for terminations resulting from rape. Feminist commentators noted that portraying abortion as the “worst crime” to women who had just escaped the brutality of war plays into the hands of Russian propaganda, which continually attempts to dismiss the atrocities the Russian military commits against Ukrainian civilians. A recent investigation conducted by Gazeta Wyborcza, one of the top Polish newspapers, revealed financial connections between a Russian oligarch close to Kremlin and the Polish ultraconservative organization Ordo Iuris, a close political ally of Kaja Godek.

Evidence suggests that most Polish citizens would support Ukrainian refugees’ right to an abortion. In 2020, directly after Poland restricted its abortion access further, 66% of Polish citizens agreed that women should have the right to abortion on demand for up to 12 weeks into the pregnancy. This suggests that the vast majority of Polish citizens, including those identifying as Catholic, would be sympathetic towards Ukrainian women seeking abortions in the aftermath of the Russian invasion. Although strong identification with Catholicism is commonly believed to be associated with anti-abortion views, Joanna Krotofil’s recent research shows that young Catholic mothers do not unanimously support the abortion ban. For the majority of Catholic women in Poland, abortion is a complex ethical issue that they do not believe should be regulated by a universally applicable, restrictive law. These women take into account the needs of other children in the family, health conditions of pregnant women (including mental health), and the lack of systemic support for parents raising disabled children when thinking about abortion. They conclude that women should have a choice.

***

The Russian invasion on Ukraine and the resulting exodus of refugees highlights, yet again, how women’s agency is constricted in times of both war and peace. Sanctuary for Ukrainian women and girls in Poland comes with restrictions that require personal calculations of risks to one’s physical survival. While politicians and Catholic leaders are touting the fact that Ukrainian refugees have found “dignified” shelter in Poland, with no detention centers or refugee camps, the country has ignored the difficulties of Ukrainian women seeking access to abortion.

Ukrainian refugees to the United States may soon face a similar fate. With the looming reversal of Roe, Ukrainian refugees, most of them women with children who have flown to Mexico in hopes of entering the United States (the U.S. government announced it would receive 100 thousand Ukrainian refugees), are likely to be confronted with a similar problem as in Poland. Which state they end up in may now have grave consequences for their ability to access reproductive help. While California may become a sanctuary for Ukrainian women in two ways – as a state that welcomes them and guarantees the right to abortion – states like Texas may ultimately become a dubious sanctuary, like Poland, where risk to life continues to exist in other ways, such as refusal to provide abortion access.

If the situation in Poland is a harbinger of things to come in the United States, states that support reproductive rights had better increase their abortion clinics’ capacity quickly. Countless mothers, daughters, and sisters living in places where access to abortion is likely to be restricted will die if other states do not make access to abortion much more readily available.

***

Donation link for Poland’s Federacja: https://en.federa.org.pl/support-womens-rights/
Donation link for Planned Parenthood: https://www.plannedparenthood.org/get-involved/other-ways-give

***

Anna Piela is a visiting scholar at the Department of Religion, Northwestern University. A native of Poland, she has a Ph.D. in Women’s Studies from the University of York (U.K.) and studies gender, race and religion. She tweets at @annapiela999.

Joanna Krotofil is an associate professor of religion at the Institute for the Study of Religion, Jagiellonian University, Poland. Her research focuses on the intersections of gender, religion, and culture.