Backwards to Poland

Due to the extreme religiosity of a large plurality of its residents Poland is among the most backward nations in the EU. Think of Utah, only cold, wet, and Catholic instead of intemperate, dry, and Mormon. The thing that most recently set me off against the land of (some of) my ancestors was the idiotic situation involving a teen who was raped and became pregnant. As reported in the Irish Times a Polish teen was raped by another student in April. This resulted in a pregnancy and her mother supported her in getting an abortion. Poland bans abortion except in cases of rape and health. The thing is that even though it is technically legal women who have been raped are often prevented from getting abortions and threatened by priests. Such is the case here where the gynecologist initially asked to perform the abortion instead called a priest and between the two of them they forced her to sign a confession that she was not raped. Then she was taken away from her mother because her mother was 'obviously' an unfit parent. The anti-abortion campaigners nearly prevented her from having an abortion long enough for the restrictive 12 week limit to kick in, but using google I found that the anti-compassion crowd was bemoaning that the health minister, Ewa Kopacz, had stepped in to help her find a hospital that would actually perform the procedure rather than doing a bait and switch or being too intimidated to get involved. These same sites were repeating their usual propoganda in such cases, "The girl asked for help to save the life of her child, it's a conspiracy, the health minister should be excommunicated," etc. I'm glad it had a better outcome than I expected, but the poor girl. Her poor mother.

Poland is not the only nation in Europe like this, but it is the one I know most about. Ireland is similar and the thumbprints of the Catholic Church are once again all over that country's worst problems.

And this is exactly what I fear could happen in America. Not an outright legal ban, but instead rules and roadblocks to women who actually need and abortion to prevent them from getting one. Like the old laws on marijuana where it was technically legal if you just had the right stamp, but none were actually issued. So through intimidation, lawsuits, and restrictive rules the foes of abortion could bring about a de facto ban to get around the law of the land on things like providing exceptions on late term abortions for cases of the health of the mother being threatened. I really think this could not happen everywhere in America, but certainly in some of the more reactionary states it could be possible should the courts falter in oversight or if through the bombings, threats, and harassment the anti-abortion zealots can make it too expensive or dangerous to get one.