Campaigners for the right to legal abortion in Poland are accused of supporting the holocaust of innocent, unborn children, while women still undergo backstreet abortions, often risking their health or even life.
Every year the police register several dozens of instances of infanticide or abandoning of babies just like in the 1930s. Poland has managed to travel back in time.
Current regulations concerning access to abortion date back to 1993 and were introduced under strong pressure from the Roman Catholic Church, with personal backing of Pope John Paul II.
The law was introduced even though 1.3 million people signed
petition demanding national referendum on the plans to restrict access to abortion. The referendum never took place. Ordinary citizens, including women, were left out of the debate.
The law permits an abortion only if pregnancy constitutes a threat to the woman's life or health; if there is a high probability that the foetus is severely damaged; or if pregnancy is the result of a criminal act. Although women are not punished for having illegal abortions, anyone who assists them in obtaining one may be sentenced to up to 3 years in prison.
Even who are legally eligible to have an abortion are often refused it. In a country with a population of reproductive-age women of around 10 million, no more than 200 legal abortions per year are performed.
Doctors abuse their "right" not to perform an abortion on the grounds of conscientious objection and even refuse women with severe health problems. Equally common are refusals to do prenatal examinations which might lead to women finding they have the right to legal abortions.
At the same time if a woman has the necessary contacts and the money, having an illegal abortion is not a problem. She just has to be able to decipher the secret code of gynaecologists' newspaper ads ("Gynaecologist: full service" or "Bringing back your period"), and to find £250 - £670.
Clearly, since 60 per cent of households in Poland live at or below the so-called social minimum of 200 euro (£134) per month, abortion has become a class issue.
At the same time it is estimated that 80,000 to 200,000 illegal abortions per year are performed - with no control over their quality or the conditions under which they are carried out: While there have been cases of women dying as a result of an illegal abortion, others have died because they were refused any medical help after they tried to induce an abortion themselves.
Such facts, however, have rarely been brought up in public debates.
One of the parties of the now-ruling coalition, the right-wing League of Polish Families, has submitted a proposal to amend the Constitution of Poland so that it ensures the protection of the life of every citizen from the moment of conception.
If accepted, such a clause would in practice mean that abortion would become illegal under all circumstances, even when pregnant woman's life was in danger.
Those who are against abortion do nothing to help women avoid it: They have successfully opposed any attempts to introduce subsidised contraceptives and make sure that schoolchildren are taught in 'preparation for family life' classes (the Polish equivalent of sex education) that contraception does not work.
Moreover, the Parliament has recently started working on a project to further restrict already largely limited access
oral contraception. It wants the warning message "harmful to your health" to be placed on packs of contraceptives, just as it is with cigarettes). Questioning the status quo requires breaking a huge social taboo. But more and more women and men have been doing it in recent weeks. A national demonstration to legalise abortion took place at the beginning of November 2006.
Before this there had already been three public gatherings of women, who admitted during an abortion coming out in front of the Parliament building that they had had an abortion.
These actions are to be continued. Significantly, feminist pro-choice activists are getting increasing support from the so far male-dominated and male-oriented leftleaning trade unions and other labour organisations.
Meanwhile, special parliamentary commissions are still working on further restrictions to the access to abortion and contraception. It is vital that the pro-choice movement both in Poland and internationally lets them know that they should reconsider their ideas.
Katarzyna Gawlicz is a militant of the Pro-Choice Association which coordinates activities in favour of legalisation of abortion in Poland. PROFIT No Deportations! Dawn Raids!