Religion in discourse on abortion in Poland. Analysis of the Roman Catholic Church Episcopate documents and selected weekly magazines

Abstract

The topic of abortion is widely discussed in the Polish public sphere since early 90s. Religious actors have been active participants in this debate but sociologists rarely look at the role of religion in formulating discourse on abortion. The goal of this article is to answer the question of how religion is present in the discourse on abortion in Poland and what are social consequences of that. We analyze arguments used in discourse on abortion in the documents of the Polish Episcopate Conference and selected Polish liberal and Catholic weeklies. We draw conclusions about the vision of religion presented by selected opinion-forming circles.

Documents of the Episcopate and “Gość Niedzielny” present absolute opposition to abortion. Abortion is defined as “the end of life”. The main religious argument is the reference to God as the creator of man who is the only entity able to decide about the end of human life. The social consequence of the assumption that God is a source of morality is an opinion that the best mechanism for ensuring the well-being of the state is to base the law on religious foundations.

The religious argument in “Tygodnik Powszechny” is more nuanced. Authors refer to the social context of abortion and the complexity of women’s decisions about abortion.

Liberal weeklies strongly oppose the implementation of more restrictive abortion law. The social consequence of criticism of religion is the vision of society as independent and the postulate of a state independent of religion. Religion is believed to be non-functional as the base of morality.