Life

WATCH: Polish Women, in Black, Protest Proposed Abortion Laws

By Phoebe Maltz Bovy October 25, 2016

At the beginning of October, protestors in Poland, dressed in black, successfully prevented that nation’s government from turning already-restrictive abortion laws into a ban. Earlier this week, protestors took on the latest proposal from this strongly Catholic country: a restriction on abortion even in cases where the fetus would not survive, or is severely deformed. The idea is to allow the fetus to make its way into the world (that is, to compel the woman carrying that fetus to give birth) so that there would be time for the baby to be baptized and then buried.

Views on abortion differ, to state the abundantly obvious, and differ among good people, to state the somewhat more controversial. While I am pro-choice, I don’t think the opposing political view is entirely rooted in misogyny, and I certainly respect any woman taking her own personal or religious views into account when facing a challenging pregnancy. But there’s something particularly gruesome, I think, about forcing a woman to have a stillbirth. A woman whose own religious principals very well might not dictate that tremendous sacrifice.

Never mind what I think, though. The women of Poland have made their voices heard.

Phoebe Maltz Bovy edits the Sisterhood. Her book, The Perils of “Privilege”, will be published by St. Martin’s Press in March 2017.

Phoebe Maltz Bovy is a former editor of the Sisterhood blog at the Forward. Her writing has appeared in several publications, including The New Republic and The Atlantic. Her book, “The Perils of ‘Privilege,’” was published by St. Martin’s Press in March 2017. She has a PhD in French and French Studies from New York University, and has read a lot of 19th century French Jewish newspapers for a 21st century American.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO