On Tuesday, solidarity demonstrations with Joanna were organized in Polish cities. She appeared on the one in Krakow, where she told how the policemen in the hospital behaved towards her. – I was no longer a human there, I was a hunted animal there – she said. At the same time, she added that care should be taken of people “who did not even dare to think that having a body is not a shame”.
On Tuesday at 6 pm in many Polish cities, including Warsaw, Gdańsk and Katowice, demonstrations of solidarity with Mrs. Joanna began.
Nationwide Women’s Strike announced earlier that protests would also take place in Kielce, Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski, Piotrków Trybunalski, Poznań and Toruń.
Protest in Warsaw in solidarity with JoannaTVN24
Solidarity demonstrations with Joanna
The main protest was organized in Krakow. Joanna spoke at the beginning of the demonstration there.
She described a sequence of events that occurred after she contacted her doctor. Later, she described her stay in the hospital and the actions of the police.
– They told me after the gynecological examination to strip to the leg, squat, do squats and cough. I didn’t want to do it because I felt it was demeaning. They were asking about my phone, so that had something to do with it,” she said.
– Well, I didn’t want to do it, but they said that if I didn’t return the phone, they would take it themselves. So I stripped down to my feet, but I didn’t want to take off my panties because my sanitary napkin was dirty and I was bleeding. I was no longer a human there, I was already a hunted animal there – she said.
– There are people who need care. And these are the people who live somewhere, (…), in small towns and villages. They haven’t even dared to think that having a body is not a shame, that having a bloody napkin is not a shame, she continued.
“An example of a systemic violation of women’s rights”
Earlier, before the start of the protests, a conference on Joanna was organized by MPs from the Lewica club.
– What happened to Mrs. Joanna by the police is an example of systemic violation of women’s rights. It is an example of an almost obsessive search for moments when women can be humiliated and hurt more. But this is not really an isolated case. We are in Krakow, in Lesser Poland, in a region where high-profile cases have been reported in recent years, where doctors did not save their patients, but were more interested in their conscience – said MP Daria Gosek-Popiołek.
– We, as members of the Left, clearly say that there is no consent to violence against women. There is no consensus on a system in which women are the most vulnerable and there is no protection for them. In recent months, we have presented a number of laws, a number of proposals aimed at supporting women. We will continue to do so and we are a guarantor that women’s rights will not be traded for something else, that in the end these most important problems will be solved – she added.
Demonstration in Krakow as a gesture of solidarity with Mrs. JoannaTVN24
– We are here today as MPs and politicians of the Left, not only to support Joanna, to thank her for this great courage. Because in Poland it is still brave to say: yes, I decided to terminate the pregnancy, yes, I had an abortion, it was my decision – said Katarzyna Kotula.
She reminded that the Left, right after the Constitutional Tribunal’s verdict, submitted an act on the decriminalization of abortion to the Sejm. – And we must do everything so that we can proceed with this act immediately and immediately implement it, because only the Left’s act, the act on the depenalization of abortion, is an immediate rescue for women, but also causes mothers, husbands, partners, friends, friends who decide to help a woman, decide to help her when she simply needs to terminate her pregnancy, they will not be prosecuted today she said.
Scheuring-Wielgus: among the matters to be dealt with is the issue of the conscience clause
Joanna Scheuring-Wielgus said that in “the basket of matters that are to be dealt with now and should be dealt with according to the Left, apart from the decriminalization of abortion, there is of course the issue of the conscience clause.”
– We are here with you in Krakow, but we know that so recently in Nowy Targ there was an unprecedented case. Doctors refused to perform an abortion, citing a conscience clause. We, as the Left, speak clearly and distinctly. There can be no situation where a woman goes to the doctor, needs help and finds out that she will not get this help because the doctor has such and no other views – she added.
– Doctors should treat us. The fact that they have some views should be hidden in their pocket in their conscience and they should just help us, Poles, but also Poles, she emphasized.
Joan’s story
The story of Joanna from Krakow was publicized by “Fakty” TVN. The woman took the abortion pill because the pregnancy was supposed to threaten her life. After a few days, when she felt physically and mentally unwell, she notified her doctor. She also informed her that she had had a medical abortion. A doctor – a psychiatrist – who claims that the woman informed her during the conversation that she wanted to take her own life, called 112 and informed the service about the incident. Joanna went to the hospital in the escort of the police. On the spot, uniformed officers were to interrogate her, and they also took – as later ruled by the court – the laptop and phone unlawfully.
In an interview with TVN24, the woman emphasized that no one forced her to have an abortion, she ordered the drugs online and decided to take them herself. According to Polish law, termination of one’s own pregnancy is legal and there is no criminal liability for it.
SEE THE MATERIAL OF “FACTS” TVN: Joanna took the abortion pill. The police came to the hospital, took her laptop and phone
The police responded to the case a day after the broadcast of the material in “Fakty” TVN. In the first message, which appeared on the website of the Municipal Police Headquarters in Krakow, uniformed officers reported that they had received a report about a woman who “had an abortion” and “wants to take her own life”, and “securing the phone and laptop was necessary to determine the source of the purchased medicine and to check whether its sale was legal”. One day later the police changed the message.
During the press conference, the Chief Commander of the Police, Gen. Insp. Jaroslaw Szymczyk. During the conference, recordings of telephone conversations between Joanna’s doctor, 112 dispatcher and the police were made public.
Main photo source: TVN24