Coleshill School Students OUR WORLD
Protests, protests, protests
TAYLOR SMITH
Protesters in almost 50 Polish cities defied Poland’s “red zone” ban on gatherings, aimed at preventing further outbreak of the coronavirus, blocking city streets with cars, disrupting church services across the country, chanting and spraying slogans on walls to protest the recent supreme court decision to tighten an already strict abortion law in the predominantly Catholic country. Angry crowds carried posters reading “I want choice not terror” depicting a crucified pregnant woman and the red lightning bolt of the pro-choice movement in Poland, which has been compared to Nazi imagery by Conservative opposition.
Protests began with the Constitutional Tribunal banning abortions related to foetal defect. The court ruled that an existing law allowing the termination of malformed foetuses was “incompatible” with the constitution. The ruling ended the most common of the few remaining legal grounds for abortion within Poland. According to health ministry figures, 1,110 legal abortions were carried out in Poland in 2019, with 98% being carried out on grounds of severe foetal defects, but women’s groups say the number of abortions carried out illegally or abroad could have been anywhere between 80,000 and 120,000. Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the deputy prime minister, labelled the protests as attempts to “destroy” Poland. He urged people to “defend” the nation as well as the Catholic Church.
Polish opposition parties, the EU’s human rights commissioner as well as international human rights organizations have condemned the court’s decision as violating women’s rights. The court ruled that allowing abortions due to foetal defects is unconstitutional, banning one of the last remaining legal grounds for the procedure in Poland. Opposition Civic Coalition leader Borys Budka reacted by saying that words calling for “hatred, inciting civil war and using party forces to attack citizens are a crime”. There is also strong anger directed at the way the government pushed the change through without parliamentary debate or public consultation.
Emily Crichton
Shock and horror have been created in Peru after judges dismissed a rape case due to the victim wearing red underwear that meant she was ‘willing to have sex’. The accused rapist was exonerated and allowed to walk free, which has caused rallies and protests across Peru. The peaceful protests show people outside of momentous political buildings with red underwear on their knees to show that wearing them is not a form of consent and that they stand with the victim. Activists across Latin America urge their government to do more to help violence and prejudice against women. The victim has been said to have been unconscious and taken, against her will, by the accused. This shows she evidently was a victim, and that no help or comfort has been given to her by those in authority-as they claimed that she was not ‘shy’ like she made herself to be. It is clear that laws concerning women need to change.
Jessica Twigger
When protestors began to show up at the Supreme Courts in America in handmaid’s outfits from Atwood’s ‘The Handmaids Tale’ their message was made quite clear. The uniform, a red robe paired with a white bonnet obscuring her face, are modest, iconic and a clear universal symbol; that being against the requestioning of women’s bodies by the government. Women worldwide are taking to protests clothed in iconic red outfits as a repudiation to change the change to abortion laws from multifil countries including Ireland, America, England and Croatia. Margaret Atwood, the author of the 1985 novel, is reported as saying “Nobody likes abortion, even when safe and legal. It’s not what a woman would choose for a happy time on a Saturday night. But nobody like women bleeding to death on the bathroom floor from illegal abortions either. What to do?” Her view on the situation is quite clear, standing with women under the governments currently taking their autonomy away.
