Written by Elżbieta Korolczuk and Pauline Cullen
Anti-abortion groups often claim that their goal is to protect women from the supposed negative consequences of abortion, but in practice they constantly stigmatize women who undergo the procedure. In anti-abortion propaganda, abortion is presented as a deviation from the norm, as something shameful and immoral, or as a source of social evil and personal misery for women who choose to terminate their pregnancies. This strategy effectively limits access to abortion, especially for marginalized populations, including economically disadvantaged individuals, minority groups, and immigrants. Therefore, it is vital to tackle the stigma and effectively counter the hyperconservative discourse.
An analysis of strategies to identify and combat abortion stigma in Ireland and Poland published in Sexual and Reproductive Rights Issues aims to show how women’s organizations have responded to anti-abortion claims in campaigns, aiming in one context to resist further restrictions on abortion and in another to repeal a near-total ban. We focus on the mass mobilization of Polish women against the proposal to ban abortion[1] in 2016 and Remove 8u! Campaign[2] in Ireland between 2016-2018.
Until recently, abortion was banned in both countries mainly due to the continued relevance and political power of the Catholic Church, which results in abortion being stigmatized as unnatural, immoral and morally reprehensible. In Ireland, abortion under any circumstances was criminalized in 1983 when the 8u An amendment was introduced. In Poland, however, restrictive laws on the matter were introduced a decade later, when abortion became illegal with three exceptions: when the fetus has been seriously damaged, when the pregnancy is caused by rape or incest, or when the life or health of the pregnant woman is in danger. Restrictive laws forced both Irish and Polish women to seek reproductive healthcare either through local underground services or abroad, resulting in compromised women’s health and several cases of maternal death, including the highly publicized case Dr. Savita Halappanavar who died after her request to terminate her pregnancy was refused in an Irish hospital.
In Ireland, the women’s movement aimed to lift the ban on abortion, while in Poland the aim was to oppose further restrictions. In both countries, however, women’s movements based their campaigns on sentiments such as empathy and solidarity and presented abortion as a common aspect of reproductive rights rather than an exception or anomaly. Polish activists stressed how all women would suffer and some would die if the ban was imposed. Similar arguments were used in Ireland, where the abortion rights coalition highlighted the harm a constitutional ban on abortion would cause women by depriving them of much-needed health care services.
In particular, the goal of making abortion safe, free, and legal was de-emphasized in both campaigns, and instead, activists focused on language rooted in family and maternal values, emphasizing compassion, care, and empathy. This tendency was particularly visible during the early stage of the mobilization in Poland, when the demand for the liberalization of the existing law was not prominent. In Ireland, repeal of 8u The amendment was often portrayed as a merciful solution for parents seeking to terminate an intolerable pregnancy. As one Irish activist explained in an anonymous research interview, this strategy was found to be particularly effective in “putting face to the argument and pulling people towards the idea that mothers and families need better health care”. Stories of women and families seeking abortions abroad were made public to show that abortion, when illegal, was isolating, unsafe and painful, especially for parents facing a fatal fetal abnormality. Such stories evoked empathy and helped destigmatize abortion, showing that restrictions hurt not just pregnant women, but entire families and communities.
The approach used by the Polish women’s movement highlighted the high price women and families pay for the lack of reproductive health care. Although only a few women went public with their personal stories, anti-abortionists coined the phrase “barbaric law” to indicate the severity and inhumanity of the law. Women’s suffering, loss of dignity and physical integrity were invoked with slogans such as “Stop torturing women”. “Women are not incubators!”, “We refuse to die for peace of mind!” or “I refuse to be your witness.”
Both campaigns produced significant gains for women’s movements. In Ireland for example, the 8u The amendment was repealed and Poland’s abortion ban was buried in parliamentary committees. The arguments used by Irish and Polish activists resonated with supporters and political elites, which helped secure the desired outcomes. The focus on women’s experiences and needs and the use of highly emotive and emotional content worked to destigmatize abortion for many and even empowered some to share their personal experiences. While mobilization in both contexts framed abortion in ways that challenged the stigma attached to this issue, it should be noted that the generalized and empathetic messages conformed to some aspects of established cultural norms about motherhood and abortion. Focusing on the suffering and bereavement of mothers can be costly for those whose claims and needs require more fundamental change, including women who simply do not wish to become mothers or minority women, whose reproductive decisions are embedded in a complex matrix of cultural, legal, and economic constraints.
Abortion is still a politically important issue in both Poland and Ireland, where access is still stigmatized. More recently, Covid-19 has had deep gender effects. One to a great extent gender blind public health response has created abortion risks care in both contexts and beyond. In Ireland, activists secured a telemedicine approach to abortion referrals framing the service as essential health care that could not be postponed during the pandemic. In Poland, the efforts of conservative political elites to further restrict access in abortion have met innovative protests who warn against exploiting Covid-19 to limit women’s reproductive rights. The challenge now is to highlight the pandemic-related social suffering of all women, but especially the most vulnerable, while defending hard-won access to sexual and reproductive health care.
[1] In Poland, religious fundamentalists and anti-abortion coalitions proposed a bill that included the threat of criminal prosecution for both the women and the medical staff performing the procedure and stipulated that a person responsible for ““fetal murder” could face up to 3 years in prison. To oppose the bill, the Polish feminist movement launched a campaign against the proposal. Mass protests led not only to the rejection of the abortion ban bill by parliament in October 2016, but also to a significant shift in public opinion on abortion. 2016% of survey, 3 respondents believed that abortion should be liberalized and, on the contrary, in 2018, already 46% of respondents shared this view.
[2] In Ireland, the campaign against 8u The amendment has been at the forefront of decades of activism, but was rekindled in 2017 after Assembly of Citizens recommended legislative and constitutional reforms that would equal safe legal abortion in the country. Consequently, the government scheduled a referendum on the constitutional ban that took place on 25 May 2018. Although opinion polls before the referendum showed a narrow margin between those supporting and opposing the repeal, ultimately 66.4% of the Irish people voted resoundingly for repeal.
Please note that blog posts are not peer-reviewed and do not necessarily reflect the views of SRHM as an organization.
