'Defending the unborn', 'protecting women' and 'preserving culture and nation': anti-abortion discourse in the Polish right-wing press
Date
2021
Authors
Koralewska, Inga
Zielinska, Katarzyna
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Taylor & Francis Group
Abstract
Poland has one of the strictest abortion laws in Europe, and anti-abortion discourse shapes the debate and social attitudes towards the issue. The paper aims to reconstruct the way in which this discourse, as exemplified in the Polish right-wing press, constructs negative views about abortion and to identify the legitimation mechanisms it employs to sustain its interpretations. Based on our findings, resulting from a content analysis of articles from two right-wing weekly magazines, we distinguish three interrelated frames organising Polish anti-abortion discourse, centred on ‘defending the unborn’, ‘protecting women’, and ‘preserving culture and nation’. While the first two have occurred in the liberal contexts of Anglophone countries, with one replacing the other, in Polish anti-abortion discourse they co-exist. The construction of abortion as a threat to culture and nation is specific to Poland. We argue that by blending together community-related and individualistic arguments, Polish anti-abortion discourse adapts to wider societal changes observable in the country, thereby sustaining its power to define debate.
Description
Keywords
Abortion, discourse, Poland, right-wing press
Citation
Collections
Source
Culture, Health and Sexuality
Type
Journal article
Book Title
Entity type
Access Statement
Open Access
License Rights
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License