Paper short abstract:

I analyze Polish women’s use of abortion underground and online networks as a form of resistance to abortion restrictions. I argue that this individualized resistance is a limited stopgap strategy for dealing with larger social and collective concerns about reproductive rights and gender equality.

Paper long abstract:

This paper examines Polish women's use of the clandestine abortion underground and online networking as a form of resistance developed in response to severe restrictions on access to abortion services in Poland since 1993. Since the abortion ban, the Polish feminist movement has been actively advocating for reinstituting abortion rights, but with little success, as the medical community and the public at large have generally abstained from meaningful political participation in the controversies of this struggle. Because the ban allows limited exceptions, it is often depicted in political discourses as a "compromise" with the Church, while in reality Poland's abortion law is one of the harshest in Europe.

Rather than complying with the abortion ban, imposed unilaterally by postsocialist state and the Catholic church, Polish women's response has been to develop their own coping strategies to control fertility, including circumventing the legislation by pursuing illegal abortions and sharing this knowledge on the Internet. I argue that this individualized and privatized form of resistance is a limited stopgap strategy for dealing with larger social and collective concerns about reproductive rights, health, and gender equality that should be addressed with collective policy solutions.