Abstract
A ruling by the Constitutional Court (hereinafter: the Court) on October 22, 2020, sparked some of the biggest mass protests in Poland since 1989. With this ruling, the Court declared unconstitutional a statutory provision allowing the termination of a pregnancy when "prenatal tests or other medical indications point to a high probability of severe and irreversible fetal impairment or an incurable disease threatening its life." This ruling is not, as some commentators would like to see, an aberration, a departure from previous liberal and human rights-based standards by a group of judges or "understudy judges" affiliated with the Law and Justice party. Rather, it is a consequence of the right-wing constitutionalism that has dominated the Court for years. This constitutionalism is both fundamentalist Catholic and exclusionary legalistic. It accepts religious Catholic doctrine as a legal basis and limiting the influence of civil society and public debates on the Constitution and its values.
| Translated title of the contribution | Boiling Frog. Right-wing constitutionalism and women's rights in Poland |
|---|---|
| Original language | Polish |
| Title of host publication | Kobieta-ciąża-zarodek-dziecko Prawne aspekty przerywania ciąży |
| Editors | Magdalena Grzyb, Katarzyna Sękowska-Kozłowska |
| Publisher | Jagiellonian University Press |
| Pages | 183-204 |
| ISBN (Electronic) | 978-83-233-7383-4 |
| ISBN (Print) | 978-83-233-5180-1 |
| Publication status | Published - 19 Apr 2023 |
Erasmus Sectorplan
- Sectorplan Recht-Public and Private Interests
