{"id":117134,"date":"2023-09-22T09:10:44","date_gmt":"2023-09-22T06:10:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/news\/their-circumstances-are-unbelievable-how-will-women-vote-in-polands-next-election\/"},"modified":"2023-09-22T09:10:44","modified_gmt":"2023-09-22T06:10:44","slug":"their-circumstances-are-unbelievable-how-will-women-vote-in-polands-next-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/news\/their-circumstances-are-unbelievable-how-will-women-vote-in-polands-next-election\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Their circumstances are unbelievable\u2019: How will women vote in Poland\u2019s next election?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mp_wrapper\">\n  <div class=\"mepr-unauthorized-message\">\n    <p>You are unauthorized to view this page.<\/p>\n  <\/div>\n  <div class=\"mepr-login-form-wrap\">\n            \n<div class=\"mp_wrapper mp_login_form\">\n                  <!-- mp-login-form-start -->     <form name=\"mepr_loginform\" id=\"mepr_loginform\" class=\"mepr-form\" action=\"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/login-2\/\" method=\"post\" data-trp-original-action=\"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/login-2\/\">\n            <div class=\"mp-form-row mepr_username\">\n        <div class=\"mp-form-label\">\n                              <label for=\"user_login\">Username<\/label>\n        <\/div>\n        <input type=\"text\" name=\"log\" id=\"user_login\" value=\"\" \/>\n      <\/div>\n      <div class=\"mp-form-row mepr_password\">\n        <div class=\"mp-form-label\">\n          <label for=\"user_pass\">Password<\/label>\n          <div class=\"mp-hide-pw\">\n            <input type=\"password\" name=\"pwd\" id=\"user_pass\" value=\"\" \/>\n            <button type=\"button\" class=\"button mp-hide-pw hide-if-no-js\" data-toggle=\"0\" aria-label=\"Show password\">\n              <span class=\"dashicons dashicons-visibility\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/span>\n            <\/button>\n          <\/div>\n        <\/div>\n      <\/div>\n            <div>\n        <label><input name=\"rememberme\" type=\"checkbox\" id=\"rememberme\" value=\"forever\" \/> Remember Me<\/label>\n      <\/div>\n      <div class=\"mp-spacer\">&nbsp;<\/div>\n      <div class=\"submit\">\n        <input type=\"submit\" name=\"wp-submit\" id=\"wp-submit\" class=\"button-primary mepr-share-button\" value=\"Log In\" \/>\n        <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"redirect_to\" value=\"\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117134\" \/>\n        <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"mepr_process_login_form\" value=\"true\" \/>\n        <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"mepr_is_login_page\" value=\"false\" \/>\n      <\/div>\n    <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"trp-form-language\" value=\"en\"\/><\/form>\n    <div class=\"mp-spacer\">&nbsp;<\/div>\n    <div class=\"mepr-login-actions\">\n        <a\n          href=\"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/login-2\/?action=forgot_password\"\n          title=\"Click here to reset your password\"\n        >\n          Forgot Password        <\/a>\n    <\/div>\n\n      \n    <!-- mp-login-form-end --> \n  <\/div>\n      <\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"smart_content_wrapper\">\n<p>The vote of women in the incoming parliamentary election in Poland could be crucial in determining whether the PiS will hold on to power &#8211; or would be punished for restricting access to abortion in the country, experts say. As a crucial parliamentary election which could weaken the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party\u2019s hold on to power quickly approaches in Poland, experts are wondering what role women will have in determining the future of the country. Less than a month ahead of the 15 October election, the PiS &#8211; which has been in power since 2019 &#8211; could take home a victory but fail to reach an overall majority.<\/p>\n<p>This opens the possibility of a potential coalition between the PiS and the ascending far-right party Confederation Freedom and Independence (Konfederacja Wolsno\u015b\u0107 i Niepodleg\u0142o\u015b\u0107), currently the third party in the country; or another coalition led by the current opposition, Donald Tusk\u2019s Civic Coalition party (Koalicja Obywatelska), currently the second party in the polls.<\/p>\n<p>Women, who have suffered a crackdown on abortion rights sponsored by the PiS with the backing of the local Catholic church about three years ago, might prove a wild card in the incoming election &#8211; either supporting the ruling party or turning against it. According to Simona Guerra, a professor in Comparative Politics at the University of Surrey and an expert on Polish politics, the PiS\u2019 policies after 2019 have taken \u201ca more radical, illiberal and anti-European stance on most social, cultural, and economic issues &#8211; and also and above all, on the rights of women and minorities.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Since the Polish government banned most abortions in the country, \u201cwomen have died,\u201d Guerra told Euronews. \u201cThis election would be important for women, because while there are those who can afford to have abortions abroad, there are those who cannot.\u201d According to Anita Prazmowska, a professor at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and an expert in Polish politics and history, women in Poland are being treated like \u201canimals\u201d and being reduced to only one purpose, \u201cto give birth.\u201d Despite the Polish government\u2019s efforts to promote pregnancy and reduce access to abortion, the country\u2019s birth rate is still one of the lowest in Europe. \u201cSo what is happening? The answer is illegal abortions,\u201d Prazmowska told Euronews. \u201cEducated, wealthy women can go to the Czech Republic and Western Europe to have an abortion, but women in the rural villages don\u2019t have that option.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In 2021, the Polish government imposed a near-total ban on abortion which only allowed the procedure in case the pregnancy threatens the pregnant person\u2019s life or health or it\u2019s the result of rape or incest. of But Prazmowska said that things are worse than the strict law would suggest. \u201cThough, in principle, abortion is legal in cases of rape, incest and foetal abnormality, as well as in proven cases of threat to women\u2019s health, no hospitals are willing to perform illegal abortions,\u201d Prazmowska said, \u201cbecause hospitals are dominated by local political groups and fearful of accusations by the church.\u201d There were two cases in the past two years where women were refused treatment in hospital despite carrying a dead foetus inside them and died of septicemia &#8211; blood poisoning by bacteria.<\/p>\n<p>While the Polish government\u2019s crackdown on abortion has sparked huge, nation-wide protests across the country in 2020, \u201cthat energy has dissipated,\u201d Prazmowska said. Educated and working women in Poland\u2019s capital and big cities will certainly think so, she added, \u201cbut that\u2019s not enough. Normally, the women\u2019s vote is very conservative, very church-bound. In Poland, the Church controls the villages and the rural areas of the country very, very successfully.\u201d\u00a0 Prazmowska said that \u201cwomen\u2019s circumstances in Poland are unbelievable, adding that she wouldn\u2019t know what to compare them with. \u201cWill women see themselves as a group that can actually vote and make their voice matter?,\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n<p>Women who might be unhappy with the way they\u2019ve been treated by the government lack alternative parties who push forward political agendas which actively protect their rights, according to the expert. \u201cThe past rage [over a crackdown on abortion access] has not taken the form of parties creating different programmes fighting this, because everybody talking about abortion, contraception is faced with such a violent reaction in Poland,\u201d she continued. \u201cState television is now mainly controlled by the ruling party, while independent news media are mostly online,\u201d she added. \u201cOn state television, the formal discussion is so violent, so hostile towards women that nobody dares put their head over the parapet,\u201d she continued. \u201cIt would take a very brave person. There have been, but they have not managed to build a platform.<\/p>\n<p>Tusk\u2019s Civic Coalition party has been trying to mobilise the female electorate, with a record 44% of women candidates in the incoming election. The party has plans to send buses of its women candidates around Poland to promote themselves and invite women to vote for their agenda defending women\u2019s rights. Part of the party\u2019s agenda is overturning the current near-total ban on abortion and legalising the procedure up to 12 weeks of pregnancy. Earlier this year, Tusk declared that women\u2019s rights are the country\u2019s \u201cnumber one\u201d issue.<\/p>\n<p>But the former European Council head has been criticised by feminists in the country for using the issue to promote his party, having done little to promote and defend women\u2019s rights while he was in office as prime minister between 2007 and 2014. There\u2019s also an issue of reaching women in rural areas, Prazmowska said, where women have historically supported the most conservative parties. According to Prazmowska, outside of Poland\u2019s big cities where women can be independent, \u201cwomen are still very economically dependent on society as a whole, their families, and their husbands.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Under these circumstances, women traditionally vote conservative, seduced by a political rhetoric that promises to prioritise families, defend women, and take care of their children &#8211; even if what they\u2019re doing is solidifying their dependent role in the traditional patriarchal family. \u201cIt is the older women who vote, not the young women,\u201d said Prazmowska, explaining that the process of secularisation ongoing in Poland has not yet reached the majority of the electorate. \u201cOlder women will likely still vote the same party, the PiS, if they\u2019re going to vote at all,\u201d she said, admitting she\u2019s pessimistic about any political change being driven by the women\u2019s vote, though she\u2019d wish for it. \u201cThis government is just giving women money to sit at home and have children. It destroys any economic incentive to acquire skills and find a good job. Women who don\u2019t want to do that are leaving for Western Europe &#8211; Italy, Greece, Germany. So, who\u2019s left to change the situation in Poland?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.euronews.com\/2023\/09\/22\/their-circumstances-are-unbelievable-how-will-women-vote-in-polands-next-election\">Euronews<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8216;\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The post <a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/vastuullisuusuutiset.fi\/fi\/vaufien\/their-circumstances-are-unbelievable-how-will-women-vote-in-polands-next-election\/\">\u2018Their circumstances are unbelievable\u2019: How will women vote in Poland\u2019s next election?<\/a> appeared first on <a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/vastuullisuusuutiset.fi\/fi\">Vastuullisuusuutiset.fi<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[1641,1002,606,607,608,1067,568],"class_list":["post-117134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-election","tag-poland","tag-vau_viikkokatsaus","tag-vauen","tag-vaufien","tag-vote","tag-women"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117134"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117134\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}