The tale of having no control over your own body: Abortion and sex education in Poland

Abstract: In November 2020 Constitutional Tribunal announced that it will start working on stricter abortion law in Poland. Poland has already one of the strictest abortion laws in the wholeEurope and this information and Constitutional’s Tribunal announcement created confusionamong the society. Later on, the Constitutional Tribunal decided that abortion will be considered unconstitutional, illegal if fetus is severely damaged or will die shortly after birth. This decision forced may women and men to show their objection by protesting during COVID-19. The participants of the protests claimed that the government is violating human rights and not respecting women by limiting their access to legal, safe abortion. The access to abortion is extremely limited in Poland and can be done only if pregnancy is an outcome of a rape (which is extremely hard to prove) or if it can affect woman’s health. Women that simply do not want to be pregnant and who are not ready to have a child are not able to simply terminate their abortion. Proper sex education including information about rape, the importance of clear consent, birth control and pregnancy could lower the number of unwanted pregnancies which as an outcome would lower the amount of abortions.Unfortunately, the accessibility to proper sex education and contraceptives are hampered by ruling The Law and Justice political party and by the Catholic church in Poland. This research aims to investigate the connection between the abortion ban in Poland and sex education in Polish schools. I have the assumption that leading political party in Poland and Catholic church are limiting an access to proper sex education in Poland thinking that this will reduce the number of abortion sympathizers. This research concludes that the government and the Catholic Church in Poland are against both sex education and abortion. It also finds out that sex education is linked to abortion. More sex educated society would most likely avoid unwanted pregnancy which as an outcome would lower the amount of abortions.