Women's health as an ideological and political issue: Restricting the right to abortion, access to in vitro fertilization procedures, and prenatal testing in Poland

ABSTRACT

The authors describe the problems of women in Poland, who have limited access to abortion, in vitro fertilization procedures, and prenatal tests. The current situation stems from ideological pressure, which affects women's health issues. This is part of a broader syndrome of the conservative approach to women's health in Eastern Europe, as well as the factor that strengthens the extreme right in Europe. As women's sexual health is demonized, women less often undergo preventive examinations. Making the debate about health more rational requires radical sociocultural changes in this part of the world.