This article was originally published in July 2019 here.

Why is there so much zeal to take our laws back to the18th century?

I have always feared and admired culture in equal measure. If the culture is conducive, even the truly bizarre can be seen as perfectly normal. Therefore, when Nicolae Ceaușescu, the Communist dictator of Romania in 1966, passed his infamous Decree 770, the culture of Romania had undergone an unfathomable change. Ceaușescu made all abortions and contraceptives illegal and churned considerable propaganda to convince his people that contraceptives were unreliable, unhygienic, and used by women of dubious character. All this, in a bid to give a boost to the falling population of Romania during his regime. Consequently, the fertility rate doubled within a year, TFR (Total Fertility Rate) numbers going from 1.9 to 3.7. But about 4 years later, from the 1970s, maternal mortality rates shot up, orphanages were overcrowded, without any improvement of the economic status of Families. All modern forms of contraception were ignored. And unfortunately, Romanian women believe that abortions are the best way to prevent childbirth, till this day.

“Statistics say that almost 60% of hospitals in Croatia and Italy, and 30% of all hospitals in Romania refuse abortions based on a 

moral standard.”

Political Catholicism is a concept that is emerging with great pace, especially in the debate about reproductive laws. Countries such as Romania, Italy, Poland, and Croatia are leading the way in what is called, Reproductive Bullying. Whilst all these countries have relatively liberal laws and abortions are allowed de jure, the doctors in these countries are invoking a religious/moral clause and refusing to perform this procedure on women. As doctors refuse, so do hospitals in general. Statistics say that almost 60% of hospitals in Croatia and Italy, and 30% of all hospitals in Romania refuse abortions based on a moral standard. Churches and hospitals in Romania have begun working in tandem on social issues and to give an example, hospitals in the city of Timișoara give diplomas to doctors who refuse to perform abortions. Therefore, when that which should be available to women as a legal measure, is now being controlled through extra-legal methods, there emerges the concept of Reproductive Bullying.

The Raphael of modern Italian propoganda, Matteo Salvini, has successfully convinced his followers that abortions are a lifestyle choice and not a health care issue. Echoing his sentiment are all other parties that find themselves on the political right, such as the FIDESZ, Le Front National, and the FPÖ. The importance given to Catholic values by those on the right, reinforce their stances on this issue. Political actors from the right, find common ground when they speak against gender roles, as they believe that gender roles have been set in stone by natural laws and that a family’s raison d’etre is procreation. Abortions seek to interfere with these roles and must hence be abolished. A victim of this mentality is the LGBTQ community. As they cannot have children through normal methods, political Catholics believe that they can never form a normal family and hence are in absolute violation of natural laws, and must be condemned. This is being used to push an anti-EU sentiment, as the EU is a vocal supporter of LGBTQ rights. Furthermore, as these politicians and their supporters firmly believe that gender roles are determined by nature, they are not supportive of transgender rights, because they deny that transgender people can even exist. An interesting point to note is that the number of catholic women who receive abortions, is the same if not more, to those women who do not identify with any religion, as discovered by the NGO, Catholics for Choice.

“A victim of this mentality is the LGBTQ community. As they cannot have children through normal methods, political Catholics believe that they can never form a normal family and hence are in absolute violation of natural laws, and must be condemned. This is being used to push an anti-EU sentiment, as the EU is a vocal supporter of LGBTQ rights.”

The only EU legislation that tries to ensure reproductive rights for women was the Istanbul Convention. The convention was primarily focused to curb male violence against women, but has a small clause about gender roles and determination of the same, which is harmoniously used to interpret abortion rights. As health is subject that the EU has left to its member states, the prerogative lies on every nation in the EU to adopt policies for abortion. Malta, that joined the EU 15 years ago, had legislative prophylactic when it had included in its agreement to join the EU, a specific clause that stated that its stance as a pro-life country and on keeping abortions illegal, will never be up for debate. What all this has created, is difficulty in access to abortions. A woman in Italy was denied 23 times for her request to have an abortion before she could finally get one done. But she still managed to get it done because she could afford it. With restricted access to reproductive health, women from financially weak and marginalized communities would find it harder to get access to this procedure, thereby performing unsupervised and botched abortions that could cost them their lives, an outcome already witnessed in Romania in the 1970s.

Most countries in the EU today are facing a crisis of demography, where the older generation outnumbers the youth. This is being used as a reason by politicians to spread the message that their country will not survive if there are no children anymore. 20th Century propaganda, of how women can be heroes of their country if they give birth to healthy babies, is again gaining prominence in many of these countries that have a strong core in Catholicism. The right-wing, is building on this rhetoric, and makes statements that if native Europeans do not procreate enough to keep their lineages intact, their children will be replaced by babies of migrants from other countries, and most importantly, by the babies of Islam and alter the fundamental ethos of European society, which was built on Christian values. This tactic helps in shifting the focus away from women’s health issues towards making procreation the only way to fight the ‘tyranny that is Islam’, as opined by commentators and politicians from the right.

Hence, it is evident that in most countries that are part of the EU, in spite of existing legislation allowing for the safe access to abortion, the procedure is not being performed because doctors, religious figures, and politicians, are exerting their influence to prevent this from happening using extra-legal measures. In short, women in the EU today, are being bullied into having their children.

“Stadtler had filled the letterboxes of all his colleagues from the European Parliament, with an envelope that contained a plastic fetus…”

The world looks towards the EU for leadership in civil rights and gender equality, therefore the current situation of the EU with regard to abortion rights is perplexing. Nonetheless, the EU almost passed a law in December 2012 to give universal and safe access to abortion and contraception for women, in the EU region. That resolution, almost came to fruition, if not for the acts of Ewald Stadtler, a right-wing politician from the Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ). As the resolution was being discussed, Stadtler had filled the letterboxes of all his colleagues from the European Parliament, with an envelope that contained a plastic fetus and a letter from him stating that this resolution would be killing millions of babies across the continent, if it were passed. The fact that the EU does not have such a law until this date, shows that his efforts were successful. Legislations in the EU have been progressive and accommodative of rights of women, the LGBTQ community, and marginalized groups throughout. Rather than fighting to improve the legislature, it is a shame that today, we are fighting for its mere existence.