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„You Will Never Walk Alone”: panel discussion on reproductive rights activism in Poland

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Women’s rights are human rights, therefore within the framework of this year’s 16th edition of the international Human Rights Academy Humanity in Action Poland organized an expert-activist panel about reproductive rights in Poland, the right to self-determination, solidarity, and sisterhood. What has the ruling of the Constitutional Tribunal changed in these matters? What is the reality of access to safe abortion in Poland today? What about the social energy that the public protests have generated? How has the language of the protests affected the language of the abortion debate? On Tuesday, June 8 at 17:30-18:45 CEST / 11:30am-12:45pm EST, we were looking for answers to these questions, among others.

Our panel was an intersectional multi-voice of women from different backgrounds, from lawyers to journalists and activists, taking into account the experience of women who have had abortions.

Here are the panelists:

  • Katarzyna Bierzanowska, an activist working for the benefit of people with physical disabilities, the author of the initiative called Pełnoprawna, which aims to prevent exclusion and discrimination of people with disabilities
  • Kamila Ferenc, lawyer and deputy program director of the Federation for Women and Family Planning, and co-founder of the Foundation Against Rape Culture
  • Zuzanna Radzik, feminist theologian and social activist associated with Tygodnik Powszechny, author of the book “Church of Women”
  • Katarzyna Wężyk, journalist of Gazeta Wyborcza, author of the book “Abortion is” in which she gives voice to women who had abortion
  • Karolina Więckiewicz, activist, lawyer at the Abortion Dream Team

The debate was be moderated by Zuzanna Krzątała, feminist activist and project coordinator at Humanity in Action Poland.

The event was held in English and was live streamed on Humanity in Action Poland Facebook page.

You can watch the whole recording here.

The authors of the posters used in the graphics are Ola Szmida and Magda Wolna. Font STRAJK (eng. Strike) was created from digitized letters from hand-written strike banners. Each letter and sign comes from a different banner from various parts of Poland. The font is highly symbolic in its significance, it can be said that it was created by all the people who came out to manifest their dissatisfaction during the protests.

2021 Warsaw Fellowship is supported by

The Foundation "Remembrance, Responsibility, and Future" (EVZ)