World News for Students of English

13-10-2023 15:00

In 2021, a young woman in eastern Poland faced severe mental distress due to her fetus’s lethal defect and sought an abortion.

However, doctors refused the procedure, fearing they would break the law. Her case, though not publicly disclosed, represents what Poland’s liberal opposition sees as a decline in women’s rights under the eight-year rule of the nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party. The opposition aims to convince undecided female voters in the upcoming election. While pushing for increased fertility rates and family support, PiS opposes liberal values and enforces restrictions on reproductive rights. Poland’s fertility rates have fallen to their lowest since WW2, with some women fearing pregnancy due to strict legislation and medical complications. While some people support PiS’s social programs, others demand more autonomy over their reproductive choices.

Difficult words: distress (a feeling of extreme worry, sadness, or pain), fertility rate (the number of children born to a woman), autonomy (the right of a person, organization, or country to be independent).

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