Three headlines this morning start my day with a feeling of outrage and horror. The third one makes me feel like I’ve time traveled backward 50 years. Thank Donald Trump (and Mike Pompeo) and his band of Forced Birthers for that one:
The price of choice – the fight over abortion in Poland | photo essay
… with mass protest difficult amid the pandemic, the constitution tribunal, which has been politicised by PiS, has moved ahead with tightening the law. The new provision bans abortion in cases where “prenatal tests or other medical indications indicate a high probability of severe and irreversible foetal impairment or an incurable life-threatening disease”.
This kind of abortion, which rightwing Catholics have dubbed “eugenic abortion”, has accounted for around 98% of the small number of legal abortions in Poland in recent years. The constitutional tribunal agreed with a submission from rightwing MPs claiming it violates the constitutional right to life.
Poland rules abortion due to foetal defects unconstitutional
“Removing the basis for almost all legal abortions in Poland amounts to a ban and violates human rights,” Mijatovićtweeted.
“Today’s ruling ... means underground/abroad abortions for those who can afford and even greater ordeal for all others.”
“The worst-case scenario that could have come true has come true. It is a devastating sentence that will destroy the lives of many women and many families,” said Kamila Ferenc, a lawyer who works with an NGO helping women denied abortion.
US signs anti-abortion declaration with group of largely authoritarian governments
Move is part of a campaign by Trump administration to reorient US foreign policy in a more socially conservative direction
(emphasis added)
The US has today (October 22, 2020) signed an anti-abortion declaration with a group of about 30 largely illiberal or authoritarian governments, after the failure of an effort to expand the conservative coalition.
A virtual signature ceremony was co-hosted by Pompeo and US health and human services secretary, Alex Azar. They portrayed the declaration as a historic moment in a movement to stop abortion being supported as part of reproductive health care, and credited Donald Trump.
“Under President Trump’s leadership, the United States has defended the dignity of human life everywhere and always,” Pompeo said. “He has done it like no other president in history. We have mounted an unprecedented defense of the unborn abroad.”
In the declaration, the signatories: “Reaffirm that there is no international right to abortion, nor any international obligation on the part of states to finance or facilitate abortion”.
UPDATED:
The reproductive health and rights group also condemned the Geneva Consensus Declaration as "a farcical Trump-led document with no legal basis" and said the pledge was signed by "reproductive bullies" and "regressive governments from around the world." U.S. joins global anti-abortion pact as Polish women march to protest clampdown