ABSTRACT
Despite mass protests, the abortion ban in Poland came into force in 1993. The new law, according to which abortion is legal in three restricted cases, did not prevent women from obtaining pregnancy terminations. Instead, it created a so-called “abortion underground” that has been rarely discussed publicly because of stigmatisation around abortion. In my chapter, I analyse an independent feminist documentary, Podziemne państwo kobiet (Underground Women’s State; dir. Claudia Snochowska-Gonzàlez and Anna Zdrojewska 2009), as an important intervention in Polish abortion discourse. To break the silence around the abortion underground, the filmmakers presented personal stories of illegal abortions told by eight anonymous women. Their testimonies are juxtaposed with interviews with activist-experts, who explain the issue of abortion in terms of social, historical, and political processes as seen from the perspective of their personal engagement in the pro-choice movement. Podziemne państwo kobiet, distributed mostly through feminist and leftist groups, did not succeed in mobilising the broader public. Nevertheless, the film and consecutive projects influenced new strategies of pro-choice activism. The documentary’s success and failure result from the film’s structure that brings together different strategies of pro-choice argumentation.
