Killing ‘Unborn Children’? The Catholic Church and Abortion Law in Poland Since 1989

Abstract

Legislation on abortion in Poland is among the strictest of all European countries. As with Malta and Ireland, the regulations in Poland do not allow for the termination of a pregnancy on the grounds of the difficult social or economic situation of a woman. Post-1989 developments with regard to abortion law in Poland show the influence of the Catholic Church as a very powerful societal actor on the drafting and implementation of one of the most important policies affecting women’s rights and gender relations. Catholic ‘pro-life’ circles exercised pressure in the process of drafting and adopting the new law, as well as at the stage of the law’s implementation. The symbolic victory of the Church over abortion law is evident in the shift in general discourse and in the official language of legal acts, where, for example, ‘foetus’ has been replaced by ‘conceived child’ (in the law) or by ‘unborn child’ (in discourse). As a consequence, for public opinion abortion is seen as tantamount to ‘the act of killing the unborn child’.