Occasionally Women on Waves is accused of being a media stunt, a PR machine only set up for the hungry eyes of the press. Supposedly, they only stir up a lot of trouble in peaceful Catholic countries where women do not have the right to decide what can be removed from their uterus. Apparently, there are people that think that Women on Waves is mainly a form of Chairitertainment which does not offer any real practical help.

But after Women on Waves visited Poland, where hundreds of woman given information, information not only about abortion, but about contraceptives, birth control, safe sex and family planning, an enactment was introduced to parlement to legalize abortion. Perhaps Women on Waves could not save thousands of Polish women from an unsafe illegal abortion during the two weeks the Langenort was in Poland, but perhaps they can save Polish women from unsafe and illegal abortions in the future.

What follows in the contents of this Polish diary, are the day to day thoughts which ran through the heads of the volunteers faced with a situation that was unacceptable to them. It contains quotes from the two week front page press coverage, letters from politicians supporting the cause, hate mail, conversations recorded on the hotline, and photographs of everyone involved, the feminists, the volunteers, the police, the pregnant women and the skinheads.

All this and more has also been published in the book Women on Waves - Poland, which is available from our online shop.

Abortion was legal in Poland until 1993, only 10 years ago. After the fall of the communist regime, the Catholic Church managed to push its aggressively anti-abortion, anti-contraceptives stance onto the mainstream political agenda. Every year since 1993 between 80.000 and 200.000 women seek illegal abortion services within Poland and many are forced to travel abroad to obtain abortions. Since 60% of the women in Poland live below the poverty line, many women can neither afford the option of travelling abroad nor are they in a position to pay the high fees of an illegal abortion.

A pregnancy can only be terminated in order to protect the mother's life, if the foetus was irreparably damaged, or if the pregnancy was the result of rape or incest. Even if a woman is entitled to have an abortion according to the law, hospitals often refuse to provide it. Women seeking abortion services are not liable to any punishment. However, the abortion provider can be imprisoned for 3 years. An estimated 80,000 to 200,000 Polish women terminate their pregnancies illegally each year. But abortion tourism and underground abortion services are inaccessible for women with no means and 60 % of the women in Poland live under the poverty threshold.
During the campaign for the 2001 general election, the now-ruling Democratic Left Alliance promised to liberalize abortion but instead it sought the support of the Roman Catholic Church to join the EU. The Church offered its backing on one condition: that the existing abortion laws willould remain in place. Roman Catholic officials in Poland had to "demand" that European Union officials add a clause to the treaty that upon entrance into the European Union Poland's anti-abortion laws will remain intact. The Polish government caved in to the Church's pressure and send a letter to the European Union to seek assurances that "no EU treaties or annexes to those treaties will hamper the Polish government in regulating moral issues or those concerning the protection of human life.�
The EU referendum took place on June 8 and 9, 2003 and the majority of the Polish population voted for joining the EU.

On the 20 th of June 2003, the Women on Waves vessel Langenort arrived in Polish waters. After 2 days of struggle, the ship moored in the harbour of Wladyslawowo. The ship was greeted by a large group of supporters and some protesters from the political party League of Polish Families (LPR) who threw eggs and red paint at the supporters and the ship.

During the 2 weeks stay in Poland, Hundreds of women in difficult social and economic circumstances, some of them in great despair, called the Women on Waves hotline. The hotline was publicized through the media. Dutch and Polish speaking volunteers answering the hotline worked under the supervision of the medical staff.
We were not able to talk openly about the abortion services in Poland because our lawyers were concerned it could possibly be a violation of the very restrictive Polish anti-abortion law. The existing Polish law is a violation of the basic human right to give and receive information, as agreed in the European Convention of Human Rights, an agreement that Poland has signed.

Some women calling the hotline had already tried to provoke an abortion themselves, others begged us to send "the pill". Women were prepared to come from very far away to sail with the ship and obtain our services. This indicates that abortion is a fact of life for women in Poland. These women are entitled to have access to good health care, including safe and legal abortion services. Instead they are deprived of information and the medical care they so urgently need. They are discriminated against and isolated because of the taboo surrounding abortion and the Polish anti-abortion law. One Polish woman told the press that she appreciated the help given by the team on board the boat. "I am terrified and I do not know what to do," she told AFP. "I do not want to go to an illegal abortion clinic, where doctors will treat me like a criminal. The women on Women on Waves have really taken care of me and are giving me advice on what to do."

Despite protests and threats from anti-abortion groups, women came to the ship to seek our help. We were able to deal with the protests and we developed strategies to protect the privacy of the women that sought our help. The ship was able to sail out to international waters 3 times and our ...

For more then 2 weeks the Women on Waves ship was the main topic in all newspapers, television and radio. Abortion was discussed openly and in depth in the media, on the streets, in homes, bars and parliament. During our stay we witnessed an enormous change in the way the discussion about abortion takes place. In newspapers and on television the issue was finally discussed with substantial arguments and the need for this medical service by women was addressed. Most of the international media also covered the story. BBC news broadcasted several news reports and there have been articles in all main American and European newspapers. A documentary about the project has been made by the BBC programme ‘Correspondent’.

This is the ( incomplete) list of the press coverage in Poland. You can also find links to some articles themselves.

International

BBC News, 7-6-2003
Truth TV News Archive, 7-6-2003
Irish News, 8-6-2003
Expatica.com, 20-6-2003
Guardian Unlimited, 20-6-2003
Reuters Foundation, 20-6-2003
Reuters Foundation, 21-6-2003
BBC News, 22-6-2003
News-Journal Corporation, 22-6-2003
Indymedia 22-06-2003
Yahoo! News UK& Ireland, 22-6-2003
WorldNetDaily, 22-6-2003
BBC News, 23-6-2003
crosswalk.com, 23-6-2003
Expatica.com, 23-6-2003
iVillage, 23-6-2003
London Free Press, 23-6-2003
National Center for Women and Policing, 23-6-2003
RFE/RL Newsline, 23-6-2003
BBC News, 24-6-2003
Die Tageszeitung, 24-6-2003
Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Washington, newsletter, 24-06-2003
Fox News, 24-6-2003
Guardian Unlimited, 24-6-2003
Kaiser Network, 24-6-2003
les Penelopes, 24-6-2003
The New York Times, 24-6-2003
BBC News, 25-6-2003
Diario de Noticias 25-06-2003
El Pais, 25-06-2003
lbo-talk, 25-6-2003
MaconTelegraph.com, 25-6-2003
The Age, 25-6-2003
The Washington Times, 25-6-2003
Associated Press, 26-06-2003
Gazel Beskid, 26-6-2003
Herald Sun, 26-6-2003
Hintergrund, 26-6-2003
The Daily Texan, 26-6-2003
The New York Times, 26-6-2003
Yahoo! Deutschland, 26-6-2003
BBC News, 27-6-2003
Deutsche Welle, 27-6-2003
globeandmail.com...

by Kinga Manders: The Polish Parliament in two months will vote whether to change article 38 of the Constitution or not. The article guarantees the protection of life of every human being. The League of Polish Families' proposal is to add "from the moment of conception" at the end of the sentence. All three of right wing populistic parties of the coalition declare their support for the change. If the change is accepted, Poland will have the most restrictive abortion law in Europe.

The atmosphere and the arguments used in the parliamentary debate matched the promotion of the catholic ideology and the idea of "moral revolution" proclaimed by the goverment. This revolution, however, seems morally dubious, dangerous and is marked with the lack of public discussion and governmental initiatives in order to solve the problem of backstreet and unsafe abortions. Yearly in Poland about 150 legal abortions are performed, while the illegal abortion rate is between 80.000 to 200.000. The wide contrast between these numbers is a measure of Polish hypocrisy and lack of respect for women's rights, infamously making Poland a European giant of illegal abortion. Yet the warning voice of non-governmental organizations has already for many years been successfully ignored by the lawmakers and the government. Making abortion illegal does not reduce the abortion rate, it only moves the interventions to the dangerous underground. The victims of the situation are Polish women forced to endanger their health. European conventions and human rights conventions do not give rights to the fetus. Women have right to protect their lives and health.

The proposed constitutional change is also a proof of the ambition of the group in power to try to establish their own ideological opinions far into the future, profiting from the situation that currently there is no strong left opposition in the Parliament. For future governments changing back the constitutional laws would be very problematic. It is difficult to get the majority of votes that is required for changing the constitution. Future attempts to liberalize the abortion law in Poland will be dependant on this change. Moreover the constitutional banning of abortion is a powerful argument in the coming local elections campaigns.

This way of debating and publicizing catholic values under the cover of respect for human rights brings far-reaching harm and is a false signal to Polish society. The ve...

A protest at the dock of Wladyslawowo, next to the Langenort. Copyright Women on Waves 2004.

Polish man reacting aggressivly against the women on waves crew.

Polish women practising how to use condoms. Image Copyright Women on Waves 2004.

The mobile clinic was designed and build by Joep van Lieshout