Angry and afraid: emotional drivers of protest for abortion rights in Poland

ABSTRACT

Since 2016, many protests in support of abortion rights have occurred across Poland. What emotions drove people to begin participating in these protests? What emotions encourage them to continue protesting for abortion rights over time? To answer these questions, I conducted semi-structured interviews with 50 activists who have protested in support of abortion rights since 2016 in nine Polish cities and towns. I asked activists what emotions were important when they decided to protest and what emotions remain important as they continue to protest. Anger and fear emerged as key emotional drivers of their initial and continued pro-choice protest participation.

KEYWORDS:

• Protest
• emotions
• feminist activism
• East Central Europe
• Poland

Acknowledgments

I would first like to thank all of the activists in Poland who took the time to speak with me about their protest participation. This article would not be possible without their willingness to take time out of their busy lives to discuss their political engagement. I also would like to thank Agnieszka Graff, Joanna Fomina, and Józef Niżnik for their support while I completed the fieldwork for this article. I also would like to thank Anna Gwiazda, Janine Holc, Liesbet Hooghe, Paula Pickering, Graeme Robertson, Milada Vachudova, and two anonymous reviewers for helpful comments on earlier versions of this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The IRB at UNC-Chapel Hill provided ethical approval in studies 19-2528 and 20-3067. I briefed all participants of potential risks and then received informed consent orally before the interview.

2 Four interviewees referred to the LGBTQ+ community when expressing concerns about access to abortion by emphasizing that this issue affects all people with uteruses. All were under 26, female, and pursuing advanced degrees. These quotes reflect the alliance between pro-choice and LGBTQ+ activists, which may stem from the anti-gender movement targeting both sets of rights (Korolczuk 2020) and from the women’s movement promoting solidarity with the LGBTQ+ movement over time (Winiarczyk-Kossakowska 2021).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by American Councils; Fulbright Association.

Notes on contributors

Courtney Blackington

Courtney Blackington is a PhD candidate in Political Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.