ABSTRACT
The dissolution of state socialism in 1989 in Poland implied radical economic and social reforms, and these emerged interwoven with the restoration of traditional gender norms and patterns. It attempts to shed light on the range of theories exploring the postsocialist changes in gender relations in Poland. The chapter explores the political agenda of retraditionalisation in Poland through the case of abortion legislation. The disagreement about the abortion law is a prime example of a complex political dispute that contains moral/ethical, legal, and religious dimensions. The Constitutional Court ruled that the amendment was inconsistent with the Polish constitution because it infringed on the constitutional guarantee of the protection of human life at every stage of its development. The issue of abortion became one of the most important political concerns in the early 1990s and became a clear dividing line in Polish politics.
