CHOICE fights Poland abortion laws

CHOICE fights Poland abortion laws

News
December 6, 2016

CHOICE fights Poland abortion laws

CHOICE for Youth & Sexuality in partnership with YouAct, Astra Youth and the Astra Network presented the Polish Prime Minister Beata Maria Szydło with a Joint Advocacy Statement and Call to Action endorsed by 51 civil society organisations from over 30 countries; urging the Polish government to put an immediate end to the “Stop Abortion” bill; and comply with its human rights obligations to uphold women’s reproductive rights by ensuring the fulfilment of access to safe and legal abortion services in Poland.

We call on all supporters to share the Joint Advocacy Statement to put pressure on the Polish Government to amend their laws restricting abortion.


The letter

Your Excellency

We, the undersigned civil society organizations, wish to appeal to you on behalf of the women of Poland, to uphold their right to safe and legal abortion. We are calling on you, within your capacity as Prime Minister of Poland to urgently dismiss the “Stop Abortion” bill and ensure the rights of Polish women are upheld.

Within this joint civil society statement and Call to Action, endorsed by fifty-one organisations; you will find well-researched and documented factual information about a woman’s right to abortion, which confirms and reinforces the urgency behind it. Empirical evidence demonstrates that when access to abortion is restricted in a country, abortion rates tend to remain the same or increase. Restricting access only forces girls and women to resort to private, illegal or unsafe abortion services, which pose a serious risk to their health and lives.

The law on abortion in Poland has been one of the most restrictive in Europe for the past twenty-five years. Such a harmful legal tradition will be continued if the “Stop Abortion” bill comes into action. If put into force, the new law will ban and criminalize abortion in all cases, and introduce severe punishments for women and any individual involved in abortion procedures.

The “Save the Women” initiative proposes to bring about a change in the law that will ensure Polish women’s essential access to sexual and reproductive health services, such as comprehensive sexuality education and access to modern methods of contraception.

We urge you, Your Excellency, and the Polish government, to act quickly in order to put an immediate end to the “Stop Abortion” bill, and reaffirm the reproductive human rights of all women in Your country.

Sincerely,

Ana Rizescu
Cristina Moreno
Gosia Kot
Jelena Lucija Brodnjak
Lewis Emmerton
Marta Szostak
Monty Aal