scholarly journals Revisiting Polish Abortion Law: Doctors and Institutions in a Restrictive Regime

2021 ◽  
pp. 096466392110401
Author(s):  
Atina Krajewska

This article examines the motivations of doctors operating in restrictive abortion regimes, and it takes Poland as a case study. It places in the foreground institutional and intra-professional factors that determine abortion healthcare, which to date have been accorded little attention. The article compares the impact that criminal, professional, and social sanctions have upon the provision of abortion services. In so doing, its purpose is to refocus debate in this area. It aims to move the emphasis away from legal and political factors, including the criminalisation of abortion, and to place it on medical agency. The Polish case study is examined to test out, in the context of a late-transitional polity, the sustainability of neo-institutionalist approaches to the study of law and organisations and the sociology of professions. The analysis is particularly important and urgent in light of the recent retrenchment of reproductive rights in Poland, and beyond.

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (6) ◽  
pp. 1072-1097
Author(s):  
Atina Krajewska

AbstractThis article examines the relationship between reproductive rights, democracy, and the rule of law in transitional societies. As a case study, it examines the development of abortion law in Poland. The article makes three primary claims. First, it argues that the relationship between reproductive rights and the rule of law in Poland came clearly into view through the abortion judgment K 1/20, handed down by the Constitutional Tribunal in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. The judgment and the context in which it was issued and published are interpreted as reflections of deep-lying processes and problems in Polish society. Consequently, second, the article argues that analysis of the history of reproductive rights in recent decades in Poland reveals weak institutionalization of the rule of law. This is manifest in the ways in which different professional groups, especially doctors and lawyers, have addressed questions regarding abortion law. Therefore, third, the article argues that any assessment of the rule of law should take into account how powerful professional actors and organizations interact with the law. The Polish case study shows that reproductive rights should be seen as important parts of a “litmus test,” which we can use to examine the efficacy of democratic transitions and the quality of the democracies in which such transitions result.


Author(s):  
Vilma ATKOCIUNIENĖ ◽  
Alvydas ALEKSANDRAVIČIUS ◽  
Romualdas ZEMECKIS

The CAP support is mostly focused on the technological modernization of farms, linked with production intensification, and weakly focused on the farms prosperity and resilience. As a result farmers and managers of agricultural companies are only a slightly motivated to produce added value and high quality food products, to use short food supply chains addressing constantly changing consumer needs, or to pay much attention on issues related to climate change. The paper findings are based on the Lithuanian case study carried out as a part of the international research project “Rethinking the links between farm modernization, rural development and resilience in a world of increasing demands and finite resources” (RETHINK). The Lithuanian case study was determining farmers’ behaviour and causal factors in decision-making. The research based on the positive research paradigm, case study, content and descriptive analysis, empirical study methods (answers of two groups of experts experts-professionals and experts-farmers), logical and systematical reasoning, graphic presentation, abstracts and other methods. The present paper is examining the impact of political factors on prosperity and resilience on farms and agricultural companies. The political factors have the highest impact for prosperity of the farms and agricultural companies in Lithuania (as compared to the technical – entrepreneurial, ethical - social factors, and intangible values). The support from the EU and the national funds is not fully in line with the current concept of farms’ modernization and agricultural innovation. The public policy influence on the competitiveness of the agricultural sector is more strengthening than weakening. The results show the main elements that farmers believe should be included in the new concept of rural prosperity, as well as the main strategies adopted to reach prosperity divided into the five sub dimensions: development of the rural social infrastructure and implementation of information technologies; strong self-governance, social awareness and partnership; high culture of life and communication; rural employment and job creation in rural areas, population welfare; economic and social viability, ecology and environmental security of the countryside.


Author(s):  
Atina Krajewska

AbstractTaking Poland as a case study, this article examines the sociological and historical-institutional factors that determine the relationship between the process of medical professionalisation and reproductive rights in transitional societies. Focusing on three periods in Polish history, (a) Partition era (1772–1918), (b) the Second Polish Republic (1918–1939), and (c) the post-war period (1945–1989), it identifies ruptures and continuities that have shaped the development of the Polish medical profession and its attitude towards abortion care today. Using insights from feminist historical institutionalism, abortion studies, and the sociology of professions, the article applies the concept of ‘dialectical transformations’ to explain institutional and policy reproduction and change over time. It shows how professional and legal institutions are often transferred from one systemic context to another by individuals or organisations whose positions move from opposition to dominance. Understanding such processes is especially important in light of the retrenchment of reproductive rights across the globe.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ylber Limani ◽  
Edmond Hajrizi ◽  
Rina Sadriu

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