#WORLD #WORLDWIDE #ITALY #ANARCHISM #News #Journal #Update - (en) #Italy, Galatea FAI: How did it happen that in the 21st century women find themselves once again having to fight for the right to have an abortion? III. (3/3) #Europe between left and right (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 On 19 July 1979 Simone Veil, the French Minister of Health responsible for

approving the legendary national law that decriminalized abortion in 1975[16],
was elected the first female President of the European Parliament. ---- At that
time, the victory of the right to dispose of one's body seemed undeniable. But
almost half a century later, in 2022, Weil's place was taken by another woman ,
the Maltese center-right MP[17], Roberta Metsola , who opposes abortion. ---- The
election of Metsola is an example of the processes underway in modern Europe.
While some countries (and institutions) are trying to become more liberal and
democratic to respect European values, in others there is a conservative twist ,
which invariably affects women's right to have an abortion. This is what happened
in Poland, for example.

-Poland At the end of January 2021, the decision of the Constitutional Court to
prohibit abortions due to incurable disease or serious pathology of the fetus
entered into force in Poland .

Since then, officially, abortion can only be practiced in the event of a threat
to the life and health of the pregnant woman, as well as if the pregnancy
occurred as a result of rape or incest. An abortion requires not only the advice
of a doctor, but also the permission of a prosecutor. The judges of the
Constitutional Court wrote, in the published reasoning[concerning]the
prohibition[on abortion], that "everyone has the right to life from the moment of
conception" and referred to Article 38 of the Polish Constitution.[18]

Mass protests against the tightening of abortion legislation began in October
2020, when the Constitutional Court's decision became known, and continued in
January 2021, when the law went into effect. But the demonstrators failed to
influence the decision of judges and deputies.

In November 2021, after the news of the death of a 30-year-old woman named
Isabella from sepsis, which occurred in the 22nd week of her pregnancy, thousands
of women took to the streets of Polish cities to protest. The relatives of the
deceased were sure that the death was the result of the delay of doctors who did
not dare to have an abortion for fear of breaking the law.

Supporters and supporters of the right to abortion with the portraits of Isabella
in the center of Warsaw. November 6, 2021

Under current Polish law[19], doctors[practicing]illegal abortions face up to
eight years in prison. Therefore, if a woman needs medical intervention related
to the course of pregnancy, doctors await the death of the fetus so that the
operation is no longer considered an abortion. Here's what happened in Isabella's
case: Doctors waited until the very last moment for the fetus's heart to stop,
which ultimately led to the woman's death.

The Polish abortion law, with the particularly strong influence of the Catholic
Church, has remained one of the most conservative in Europe for the past 30
years. The first attempts at liberalization took place from 1929 to 1932 as part
of the reform of the penal code . Therefore the proposal to legalize abortion for
socio-economic reasons (among these, for example, poverty or precarious living
conditions) had been rejected and the new version of the 1932 code allowed
abortion only in cases where the pregnancy occurred as a result of violence or
threats to a woman's life and health.

This law was in effect both during the German occupation and after the
establishment of the pro-Soviet regime in the country. In 1955 abortion was
legalized in the USSR and only a year later the law was adopted in other
countries of the socialist bloc, including Poland. Soviet law allowed abortion
for socio-economic reasons.

By 1959 the procedure had been made more accessible in Poland; in fact, women had
the right to abort without any obligation on the part of the state. At the same
time, as in the USSR, abortion was seen as a necessity to prevent the risk to a
woman's life and health, and not as her right to dispose of her body.

But in the 1980s a reverse process had begun in Poland: against the backdrop of
protests against everything Soviet in the country; for the first time there was
talk of the fact that the law governing abortion should be tightened.

The changes had been urged by members of the anti-communist opposition, who had
had the support of the Roman Catholic Church and personally by Pope John Paul II,
himself born in Poland.

In 1993, the right to abortion was again legally restricted: "difficult life
circumstances" were removed from the reasons why women were allowed to abort.

According to Michelle Rivkin-Fish, a professor of anthropology at the University
of North Carolina who studies abortion in post-Soviet countries, the
criminalization of abortion in post-socialist Poland was the price paid by the
anti-Communist Solidarity party that formed the first government - and was
supported by the Catholic Church.

Thanks to the efforts of Polish feminists, the new arrangement adopted in 1993
was even softer than the one advanced in the early 1990s. But abortions for
social reasons were prohibited. The discussion continued for several years: they
tried to cancel the law, but from the second half of the 1990s the changes were
sanctioned by the decision of the Constitutional Court and a market for expensive
and dangerous illegal abortions appeared in the country.

Since then, conservatives have repeatedly sought to further restrict women's
access to abortion. In 2016, a proposal for a total ban on abortion, passed by
parliamentarians at first reading , led to mass protests - and the bill was
rejected .

In just three years the situation has changed. After the victory in the 2015
parliamentary elections of the right-wing Law and Justice party (37.5% of the
votes) - which ended the period of power of the liberal Civic Platform party -,
the legislation on abortion has nevertheless been tightened. The provision for
abortion if the fetus turns out to have a serious and irreversible disability or
a life-threatening disease - present in the 1993 abortion law - has been removed.

[Until]2019,[therefore], 98% of all abortions performed in the country had been
done following that provision[; by changing the law,]an almost total ban came
into effect.

The laws adopted in Poland cause concern in the European Union. Even before the
tightening of abortion laws, the European Commission concluded in 2017 that the
independence of Polish courts was threatened. According to the Commission, the
ruling Law and Justice party has power over the Constitutional Court. This means
that the judge cannot objectively assess the legitimacy of the measures proposed
by the legislators.

In October 2021, Poland also abandoned the rule of European law , announcing that
the country is not obliged to comply with laws that contradict its constitution.
The European Union has responded to this by cutting subsidies from the EU general
budget.

According to Marta Lempart , co-founder of the Polish feminist movement Strajk
Kobiet ("Women's Strike"), the passing of a law on abortion is "an example of
what happens when the authorities undermine the rule of law and independence of
the judiciary. " According to her, the court that decided on abortions is
"illegal" and "politicized".

In November 2021, a year after the adoption of a law that criminalized the
majority of abortions in Poland, deputies passed a resolution condemning the
decision of the Polish Constitutional Court and calling on the Polish government
to grant all women the right to a safe, legal and free abortion.

During the first 10 months of the tightening of the law in Poland, only 300
Polish women were able to have abortions in the country's hospitals due to the
threat to their life and health. At the same time, around 120,000 Polish citizens
each year undergo this procedure abroad.

Under these conditions, women seek help from non-profit organizations,
independent groups and initiatives that help them obtain medical treatment
abroad. They can only hope that the financial pressure of the European Union will
influence the decisions of the conservative government in the future and help
overcome the influence of the Catholic Church.

-San Marino
In September 2021, San Marino, one of the smallest states in Europe, completely
surrounded by Italy, held a referendum which raised the question of whether
abortion should be allowed. The referendum was attended by 40% of the citizens of
the country - out of a population of 33,000 people. 77% of voters supported
legalization. According to members of the women's union activist community - who
collected the signatures to organize the referendum - most of the country's young
people share a pro-abortion stance, which could have a significant impact on the
referendum results.

A supporter of the right to abortion pastes a poster asking to vote in the
referendum on the legalization of abortion. September 9, 2021

Ballot paper for the San Marino referendum on the abolition of the ban on
abortion. September 26, 2021

The Republic of San Marino was one of the last European states where abortion was
completely banned. Abortion was regulated by a law of 1865 , which punished the
termination of pregnancy with imprisonment from three to six years for doctors
and from three to six months for patients. In case of unwanted pregnancy, women
were forced to go to Italy - where abortion was legalized after the 1978
referendum -, paying between 1500-2000 euros for the procedure[of termination of
pregnancy].

According to the results of the referendum, abortion in San Marino has been fully
legalized for up to 12 weeks;[after this period, the interruption procedure
applies]in case of a threat to the health and life of the pregnant woman, as well
as in case of violations in the development of the fetus which can cause physical
or psychological harm to the mother.

The Republic of San Marino is a traditionally conservative state and under the
strong influence of the Catholic Church: here women obtained the right to vote
only in 1964 (18 years later than in Italy ), and divorce was officially allowed
only in 1986. The Christian Democratic Party of San Marino has been in power in
the country for 20 years, the main opponent of the legalization of abortion.

However, San Marino activists have managed to push the idea of the right to
abortion out of the usual political debate and present the issue as common to all
women. An important example for San Marino activists were the precedents of
Catholic Ireland, where a referendum on abortion was held in 2018 and ended with
its legalization, and Gibraltar, where abortion was decriminalized following a
referendum in June 2021.

Note

[16]Known as the "Law of the Veil", it allowed abortion in France. Feminists
fought for this right in the 1970s. The French Minister of Health, Simone Veil,
was instrumental in getting the law passed despite the initial skepticism of the
majority of the men in the national parliament.
[17]Malta is the only EU country where abortion has never been legal. In 2004,
the state had to negotiate separately the possibility of obtaining the exclusive
right to join the EU while maintaining the anti-abortion clause.
[18]Art. 38: "The Republic of Poland ensures the legal protection of the life of
every human being."
Source
"Constitution of the Republic of Poland" (1997)
Link:https://www.sejm.gov.pl/prawo/konst/angielski/kon1.htm
[19]Article 152 of the Criminal Code provides for a three-year prison sentence
for doctors who perform illegal abortions. If the fetus is able to live
independently outside the mother's body, the penalty can be up to eight years.

https://gruppoanarchicogalatea.noblogs.org/post/2022/08/12/come-e-successo-che-nel-xxi-secolo-le-donne-si-ritrovano-di-nuovo-a-dover-combattere-per-il-diritto-di-abortire-terza-parte/
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