'There Is No Solidarity without Women’s Freedom': Defending Reproductive Rights in Poland around 1989

• In Event: Reproductive Mobilizations and Interventions in State Socialist and Early Democratic Poland, 1950s-1990s

Abstract

This paper examines the diverse social protests against the anti-abortion legislation enacted in Poland in 1993, marking the early phase of the transition from communism to democracy. The grassroots movement defending reproductive rights, which started in late 1988, included a broad spectrum of participants, extending beyond feminist activists to encompass women and men from all walks of life who viewed the abortion rights granted to Polish women in 1956 as a fundamental human right. This study will analyze the language used by protesters in street demonstrations and in letters to women's magazines, along with their conceptualization of reproductive rights. These concepts did not always align with contemporary Western feminist ideas but were rooted in domestic traditions. Ultimately, the paper sheds light on the contested definitions of democracy in Poland post-1989.

Author

• Malgorzata Fidelis, U of Illinois at Chicago