A wide red line

Due to the ban on abortion, 150 thousand inhabitants of Poland reached a rally against the church, nationalists and government. Report "Medusa"

On October 22, the Polish Constitutional Court forbade terminating pregnancy even due to an incurable fetal disease, in fact banning any kind of abortion in the country. The decision has become the next stage in the conservative policy, which the ruling party “Law and Justice” has been holding in the country since 2015. However, this time the initiative was faced not only with the discontent of the noticeable part of the company, but with mass protests, which began immediately after the court’s decision and continue to increase. Participants in shares block roads, and the police disperse the manifestants with lacrimal gas. The journalist of the Polish publication Gazeta Wyborcza Victoria Belyashin at the request of Medusa talks about how on October 30 the protests reached their peak: 150 thousand people went to the streets of Warsaw, who demanded not only the cancellation of the court’s decision, but also the change of political course of the country.

Nationalists and priests celebrate victory over the right to terminate pregnancy in Poland

The church of the Holy Cross knows every resident of Warsaw. Located in the very center of the city, on the street Krakowskoe suburbs, he has been a symbol of freedom and security for the Poles for centuries. He was a refuge and support for the nascent movement "Solidarity" . However, today access to it is not open to everyone. After the start of nationwide protests against the tightening of the law on abortion and appeal of the head of the Party of power Yaroslav Kachinsky (he asked the Polyakov to protect “traditional values”) the entrance to the cathedral is protected by the team of local nationalists. On the stairs leading to the temple, men, dressed in black tracksuits, line up with dense rows. Many hide faces under balaclavs. Some hold Rosary in their hands - Catholic rosary, others - baseball bats and pepper gas cans. Tomash Bonkevich, related to the Polish extreme right-wing national radical camp, explained the presence of “security” before the churches as follows: “We protect the churches from profanity. We have rosary, fists, tear gas - these are personal protective equipment. This is that, according to Polish legislation, we can have to protect our life and health, as well as property that we protect - that is, in fact, the gentlemen of Jesus. ”

For a week now, nationalists have not allowed women into the temple, fearing that they can organize a protest of the protest inside - such threats from the Polish feminists appeared on the first day after the tightening of the law. Last Sunday, October 25, during the mass of some Polish churches, women with posters “Pray for abortion” appeared right in front of the altar. So they reacted to statements by the Polish priests, who supported the decision of the Constitutional Court on October 22. According to his decision, the Polish law on abortion, which for many years was considered one of the most strict in Europe, almost completely banned them.

Metropolitan Archbishop of Marek Endrashevsky on the day of the announcement of a court decision said during the service: "It is difficult to imagine more joyful news." And the chairman of the Polish episcopal conference, Archbishop Stanislav Gondetsky said: “I took a great joy to today's decision of the Constitutional Court. The life of each person has equal value to God and should be equally protected by the state. ”

The decision to tighten the law on abortion, promoted by “right and justice” and right -wing radicals, which canceled the so -called “1993 compromise” , nationalists met with enthusiasm. The tightening of the law is the personal success of the Kaya Godek politician, the conservative lawyer and the initiator of the project “Stop Abortion”. Back in 2016, due to the fears that the authorities would support him, women in Poland organized the so-called black protest , in which hundreds of thousands of people participated. Today, like four years ago, the majority of the population is negative about the ban on abortion. A survey conducted on October 27-28 by the SW Research research agency showed that 70.7% of Poles against such a ban. In the Kantar survey for Gazeta Wyborcza 61% supported the old law on termination of pregnancy.

Despite this, if the decision of the Constitutional Court is fulfilled, Polish women will be able to terminate the pregnancy in only two cases: when the pregnancy jeopardizes the life of the mother or if it became the result of rape. Over the past 27 years, women in Poland had the opportunity to legally terminate the pregnancy in the event of a detection of serious malformations of the fetus. According to data published by the Ministry of Health of the country, in 2019, out of 1100 legal abortions, 1074 were carried out for this reason. Thus, by the decision of the Constitutional Court, abortion in Poland was de facto recognized as illegal.

Polish nationalists, in turn, call an abortion “killing children”, and protesting women in defense of their rights - “left fascists” or “whores”. Those who tried to enter the church with banners last week were beaten and dumped from the stairs.

150 thousand protesters under the supervision of the police and the army

Anya, a resident of Warsaw, was expelled from the church during one of these actions: “I put a poster with the slogan“ My body is my business ”under the altar. A man immediately approached me who grabbed him and tore him into pieces, several people grabbed me rigidly, tightened my mouth with his hand, said “shut up, bitch” and led me out of the church, ”she says.

On Friday, October 30, during the march, which walked along the streets of Warsaw under the slogan “You will never be alone,” none of the protesters tried to enter the church. In total, about 150 thousand people took to the streets of Warsaw - under the supervision of police officers, military, nationalists and priests.

Priests - seeing how the crowd chants: “My body is my business”, “I think, I feel, I decide”, “The government on the sidewalk”, “Female hell” and “Fuck pis ” - shouted in response to megaphones the words of the prayer “Our Father”, held crosses in their raised hands and spurred the holy water of passing people.

At the same time, the Nationalist Tomash Bonkevich appeared on Twitter: “Thousands of barbarians captured Warsaw! Their only requirement is to kill innocent children! They call it freedom! I, like a Catholic, pray that you wake up, but remember that if we have to, we, protecting the defenseless, crush you and turn your warlike zeal into dust! ”

Olga, one of the girls who went to a rally on Friday, in response does not hide indignation: “This is arrogance. Priests are hiding behind the Nazis, they want to reduce us to the role of incubators and take away all the rights from us. Instead of looking at other people's stomachs, they should go about their business. I am 27 years old, I have not been to the church for a long time, but what is happening now, only convinced me that I should decide on apostasy from Catholicism. Today I went outside, because I do not agree that men are once again trying to deprive me of basic rights. I have no children yet. And I'm afraid that it will not. I will decide to get them only when I am sure that I can give birth to a healthy child. Polish law deprives me of this opportunity. "

Olga’s sister, 35-year-old Anna, who went to the action with her four-year-old daughter, adds: “I had severe birth. The daughter had hypotrophy , and she got into the incubator. Pregnancy is always a risk. And I know that I will no longer give birth. I can’t understand why the government wants to decide for women. And not only for women - for their husbands too. After all, if something goes wrong with pregnancy and a woman will die during childbirth, the responsibility for the child will fall on relatives. And what if the child was born very sick? Mom will no longer take care of him. Men should understand that this applies to them, ”she concludes irritably.

When asked if an abortion should be available before the 12th week of pregnancy-as in many other countries-girls do not know the answer. A few minutes later, Olga says: “I do not want an abortion to become the main method of contraception ... On the other hand, I believe that today everyone understands how to protect themselves. For me, the Polish compromise was optimal before the court decision. I think that most protesters protect him. ”

Three girls, carrying banners and posters - on one of them a young pregnant woman hangs on a cross - do not agree with Olga. “We will not compromise! The only compromise that we can go is safe, legal and affordable abortion until the 12th week of pregnancy! I can’t forgive that the Poles agreed to a compromise 27 years ago. Neither the state nor the church have the right to decide about our bodies. We are Europe, we belong to the EU, so let's finally have the same rights as in the civilized world, ”says Magda. Carolina, her friend, adds: “I do not believe that there are Christian values ​​in the Polish church. The only thing that the Polish Church does is crushing all those who do not correspond to their idea of ​​the ideal Pole. ”

Not only women take part in the march - there are both men and young guys. The march participants have not only posters with slogans in defense of women's rights, but also directed against the government. Many obscene ones, for example, “***** pis ” or “wypierdalać”, which can be censored into Russian as “go nafig”.

Rainbow flags stand out in the crowd-symbols of solidarity with the LGBT community. Pavel, a young man with a rainbow flag, an economist. From October 22, he goes to protests every evening: “I am gay. The problem of abortion does not concern me, but I do not agree with the restriction of human rights. I know very well what this means when you cannot completely make decisions about yourself when you are not at the same level with other people. I am in solidarity with women, with my sisters and friends. What the Polish government has done, and what the Church does is shame, ”he says, and then joins people who chant“ freedom to women! ”.

"They attacked entire families"

The struggle for the ban on abortion in Poland has been going on since 1989. “The Poles killed about 17 million unborn citizens,” Stanislav Strizhik, a former activist of Solidarity, said then. “Their graves are cesspools, toilets in gynecological rooms and garbage tanks!”

Then the authorities adopted a compromise law, which was in force until October 2020. Thanks to him, the number of legal abortions in Poland today is extremely small, and “abortion tourism” has become common among the Poles. According to the independent organization “abortion without borders”, which supports Polish women and helps them terminate pregnancy abroad, about 100 thousand women leave the country annually for this purpose.

Martha Lampart, the leader of the Women's strike organization has repeatedly emphasized that the ban on abortion does not mean that Polish women will not interrupt an unwanted pregnancy: “Abortion were, is and will be. The ban on abortion does not mean that there is no abortion. The ban on abortions only means that the daughters and sisters of PIS politicians, the partners of priests, who also make abortions secretly, will be easier, and everyone else, as usual, ”she wrote on Twitter.

During the demonstration on October 30, some girls directly in the crowd talked about how they aborted pregnancy. Most of them did this abroad, mainly in Germany, Austria and Slovakia. Those who did this in Poland most often interrupted the pregnancy of the house by pharmacological by ordering tablets from abroad.

Justina is 30 years old. Five years ago, she had an abortion: “What did I feel? Relief. We never told my parents about this. They are religious, they would have perceived it poorly. Now we have a child, a boy. We always wanted children. I believe that a woman should have the right to choose and decide when she becomes pregnant, and whether she really wants to give birth. "

The protest on October 30, initiated by a strike of women, is not only an action against tightening the law on abortion. Among the thousands of the gathered there are many Poles who are tired of the continuing rule of the Conservative Party “Law and Justice”, the Polish Government and, above all, the leader of the ruling party of Yaroslav Kachinsky, who, according to the protesters, is the unofficial head of state and fully controls the President of Andgei Dudu. Many shouted slogans - and also often obscene - were directly related to it. It was not by chance that the Street in the Warsaw district of Zholibozh became one of the main points of gathering the protesters. Here is the house of Kachinsky.

“The government has crossed a wide red line. At first, it was only about the right to abortion, now we are talking about everything. Now there is a struggle for the right to abortion, for the separation of powers, for the apolitical prosecutor's office, for the unconditional membership of Poland in the European Union. Conservative politicians just have to get out of here. And that’s it, ”says Peter, an architect from Warsaw. He protested with his wife and two daughters. His wife Julia adds: “Today it is a question of human rights. They attacked entire families, not just women. I hate this government, this power. While 20 thousand people are infected with coronavirus every day, they take us to the streets. ”

Victoria Belyashin , Warsaw