Abortion rights in Poland have been scrutinized by academics and journalists since the 1990s. Most recently, in October 2016, the government's attempt to curtail the already restrictive legislation on abortion provoked a women's strike and massive demonstrations. Powerful images of thousands of women marching for reproductive freedom, dressed in black, were strikingly reminiscent of 19th century protests, when in the wake of failed uprisings and state violence, Polish women appeared in public dressed in black, mourning the Polish nation. The recent demonstrations reflected a similar determination and strength of purpose, and a direct challenge to the Polish state and Catholic Church. The government withdrew the amendments, although the laws on abortion remain more restrictive than anywhere else in Europe except Ireland, and few believe that there will not be fresh attempts to regulate reproductive rights. In this context, it is clear that Joanna Mishtal's monograph, based on research in Poland after the collapse of the socialist state, is both timely and relevant.
The Politics of Morality is an ethnographic and historical account of the systematic erosion of women's reproductive rights and access to sexual health information and services that has taken place in Poland since 1989. The author's carefully documented accounts of the battles pitting church and state against many Polish women bring to mind Peggy Watson's claim that Polish democracy is a masculinist democracy.
In the early 1990s, I was conducting research in Poland; it was the height of the restructuring program of Balcerowicz, and factories all over the country were collapsing. Parliament was dominated by debate about abortion. Should abortion be made illegal? Everyone I spoke to, both female and male, nearly all practicing Catholics, stated unequivocally that abortion was a private matter, between a woman, her doctor, and her conscience. In the early 1990s, this was perhaps not surprising. Contraception was ineffectual and largely unavailable during the socialist years and abortion was de facto a major contraception method, more or less available on demand. And in the context of growing poverty and unemployment, often the possibility of a new child was the last straw.
Mishtal's accounts of the current situation resonate strongly with my own findings from the 1990s; it is disturbing to see such clear documentation of lack of change. The book paints a complex picture of the different elements involved in the “politics of morality” in Poland. Mishtal examines the role of the church in opposing socialism, and the ways moral governance and control of the means of reproduction became central after socialism's demise. Drawing on her interviews with feminist activists, politicians, and ordinary citizens as well as on earlier journalistic and academic accounts, Mishtal shows how attempts to create alternatives to the restrictive abortion legislation were systematically blocked by the church and by successive governments. The strong association between the Polish nation and the reproductive female body, growing social anxieties about falling birth rates after socialism, and an apparently deep-seated but nebulous moral panic about promiscuity, female sexuality out of control, and decline in family values, all conspire to strengthen the resistance, from the center, to any reform or reassessment of reproductive rights. Mishtal shows the difficulties even pro-choice medics face trying to arrange terminations within the public health system, when it is doctors, not their female patients, who are liable to prosecution, and many members of the hospital staff refuse to perform or be involved in terminations on the basis of conscientious objection. Women who can afford it may travel abroad for a legal termination, or pay a private gynecologist in Poland. Women who rely on public health lack these options, and Mishtal gives chilling examples of the harm to women's physical and emotional health caused by the restrictive laws. She highlights the role played by the church in the surveillance of women's sexuality through confession, priests' yearly home visits, and mandatory interrogation and questionnaires before rituals like weddings and christenings. Overall, the picture that emerges is of a Foucauldian system of governmentality and surveillance, monitored by agents of church and state.
This is a well-researched and very readable book. It provides a compelling account of the systematic erosion of women's rights and choices, which in turn raise various questions that merit further examination. How much of the moral outrage expressed by politicians and church leaders is rooted in belief, and how much in a more cynical bid for power? How are we to understand the role of popular belief and faith in the perpetuation of unpopular legislation? To what extent are members of the medical profession acting according to conscience, and to what extent financial gain? It is difficult to avoid the latter question when terminations and birth control services are routinely denied women in public hospitals and clinics, but available at significant cost from private doctors. Mishtal does consider these questions, but perhaps tips the balance slightly with her more detailed examination of the church.
Overall, however, this is an impressive and significant book, which should be read by medical anthropologists, social scientists working on postsocialism, and all those interested in the difficult paths that feminism has followed since the early 1990s. Mishtal's work demonstrates beautifully the obstacles that have been faced by those trying to make a new kind of politics and society. In such contexts, the emergence of the new Polish feminism must be seen as a Sisyphean labor of love and politics.
