There’s going to be a new “pro-life” anti-abortion law in Poland. And it’s horrible. It’s disgusting, it treats women in a horrible way and there have already been protests. Please read this post about it. Please. What follows is my translation of a Facebook post that now has over 23k shares and which very clearly explains the whole thing. Please spend 5 minutes of your time reading it to know what might happen to your Polish followers or friends.
“A conceived child is a human being in a prenatal state, from the moment the female gamete and male gamete connect” - this is what the project of a new legal act states. So far it has been approved by the episcopate, the prime minister (who is a woman by the way) and the leader of the current ruling political party. (…)
It doesn’t affect only women. Everyone single one of us has a sister, a cousin, a mother, a colleague from work, a neighbour, a teacher, an employer or an employee - and all of these women will be affected by this new law. Women get pregnant. And sooner or later, you or a woman you know, might get pregnant and suffer because of this new law. (…)
The Criminal Code will get a new section: “the prenatal murder”, for which one will get from 3 months up to 5 years of prison. And for this crime, everyone could be convicted: the mother, the doctor, and every person who helped - your friend who brought you emergency contraceptives bought in another country or your friend who let you stay in her house while you were getting an abortion in Czech Republic.
If the crime is involuntary, the punishment is up to 3 years of prison. The judge will be able to refrain from jail punishment. By “involuntary” the law means a miscarriage. A miscarriage in a situation where a woman didn’t actively want to lose the baby, but “by her unwise actions she lead to her child’s death”.
My name is Carrie. I’m from Nashville, TN and I was 18 when I had an abortion. My entire extended family called me a baby killer. My mom held me and cried and prayed and spoke in tongues and begged for the devil to give back my soul. My aunt called my cell phone repeatedly and harassed me on the way to the clinic. My father begged God to forgive me for murdering a poor innocent soul.
The doctors at the hospital were not permitted to give me any information on abortion clinics. They were actually required to “congratulate” me and book appointments for ultrasounds 4-5 weeks out. Planned Parenthood was even required to council me for a week before I “made up my mind”. At the actual abortion clinic, I wasn’t allowed to be fully sedated because they said “they want you to be fully aware of what you’re doing”.
I felt so alone and shamed. But I didn’t understand the convoluted bullshit even back then because I thought having an abortion is “killing a baby” as much as shooting a load of your sticky white goo all over my tits is “killing a baby” as much as pulling out is “killing a baby” as much as birth control is “killing a baby”.
There shouldn’t have to be “a good reason” for someone having an abortion. It shouldn’t take “The pregnancy could damage me” or “I am homeless” or “I was raped” to be ‘a good reason’ to have an abortion.
You have an abortion because you fucking want to. Hands down. You don’t have to try to validate your choice to anyone, even your parents, or your boyfriend or husband. It’s your fucking body and your fucking business.
And by the way, never once have I ever regretted it. I’m still so proud of myself for doing it. I was brave. My boyfriend at the time was brave. He supported me and even split the whopping $600-$700 abortion bill with me. We paid it out of our own pocket while waiting fucking tables at Waffle House.
10 years later and I haven’t really ever told my story because, again, it was nobody’s business but mine. 10 years later and my now ex-boyfriend is now my best friend in the world and one of the closest friends I have.
But my heart goes out to ANYONE who gets pregnant and scared of what others might think. Please be brave. Make the choice that is right for you. Fuck all the other voices trying to drown out your own. Much love. Inbox me if you ever need any support.
Anonymous: I see you still haven't answered my other ask. I am mentally ill and have a phobia of being pregnant. I would kill myself were I ever to become pregnant and could not get an abortion. Do you believe I should not have access to one?
I believe it’s disgusting and frightening that we live in a world and in a society where motherhood is seen as a burden and an abomination. I believe it should be unthinkable for a person, even the mentally ill, to feel that life is no longer worth living because they don’t have the right to kill their own child. It’s not a mental illness thing. It’s a societal thing.
No, I don’t believe you should be allowed to hire an assassin to kill your unborn baby. I believe you should have easy access to good mental help and I believe it’s downright infuriating that we, humanity, as a whole, have decided that it’s easier to just kill the baby than it is to fight for the mother’s and consequently the baby’s health.
I believe it is abhorrent that our minds have been contorted so severely that we are willing to stick coat hangers into ourselves to kill our children, because we are told what a terror and a curse children are.
I believe that it is astoundingly ironic, the fact that we call the abortion movement “women’s rights,” considering its very foundation is the blatant lie that we are not strong enough to be mothers and also be successful/healthy, and that we must pick one.
Abortion is misogyny in its purest form and nobody can convince me otherwise.
No, you should not be allowed to have an abortion because you are mentally ill. The thought of being pregnant should not be something the illness in you balks at, and a terrible injustice has been done to you if it does.
Unless you’re mentally ill I don’t believe you should voice your opinion on this topic. At all.
Now, as someone who’s mentally ill, let me explain to you something: pregnancy can be incredibly dangerous for us. And no, this isn’t a ‘society’ issue, this is a medical issue. A lot of medications can complicate pregnancies, causing both health problems to the pregnant person/fetus. Quite often you’d have to stop taking the medications entirely to carry on a healthy pregnancy. Unless you’re mentally ill you cannot even begin to fathom what damage that can do to them. That could cause them to relapse, which could escalate to an even more dangerous situation. When I was on my medication I was told, by a doctor, I absolutely could not be pregnant. Never. And again, I’ll stress that this wasn’t society telling me this, nor my beliefs, this was a medical professional telling me that yes, pregnancy would be a burden on me, a life threatening one. On top of my mental health, I have severe tokophobia, and to add the cherry on top, I’m asexual to begin with, so any chance of me being pregnant would be against my will. I dare you to tell me again that this is ‘misogyny’ and I shouldn’t be allowed an abortion.
I find it highly laughable that you call yourself pro-life while in the same breath claiming that the mentally ill shouldn’t be allowed an abortion, even if it meant saving their life.
Anonymous: I see you still haven't answered my other ask. I am mentally ill and have a phobia of being pregnant. I would kill myself were I ever to become pregnant and could not get an abortion. Do you believe I should not have access to one?