The politics of morality : the church, the state, and reproductive rights in postsocialist Poland / Joanna Mishtal.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Mishtal, Joanna, author.

Series:

Ohio University Press Polish and Polish-American studies series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Catholic Church.

Women--Political activity--Poland.

Women.

Women's rights--Poland.

Women's rights.

Church and state--Poland.

Church and state.

Catholic Church--Political activity--Poland.

Reproductive rights--Poland.

Reproductive rights.

Abortion--Poland.

Abortion.

Political participation.

Women--Political activity.

Poland--Politics and government--1989-.

Poland.

Politics and government.

Physical Description:

xii, 258 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Athens, Ohio : Ohio University Press, [2015]

Summary:

After the hope and enthusiasm that followed the collapse of Poland's state socialism in 1989, political forces that had lain concealed emerged and established new religious-nationalist orthodoxy. As the Catholic Church emerged as a political force in the Polish government, it precipitated a rapid erosion of reproductive rights, especially the right to abortion, which had been relatively well established. In The Politics of Morality, Joanna Mishtal explores this expansion of power by the religious right, along with the new reproductive governance and its little-studied implications for women. She examines the contradiction between an emerging democracy on one hand, and a declining tolerance for reproductive rights, women's rights, and political and religious pluralism on the other. At the same time, women resist these strictures by pursuing abortion illegally, defying religious prohibitions on contraception, and forming advocacy groups. Surveillance, control, and abuse of power are persistent themes in this revealing ethnography, which will speak to scholars of women's rights, political history, and Eastern Europe. Book jacket.

Contents:

Introduction: women's rights and democratization: the Polish paradox

"The church was helping us win freedom": democratic transition and the return of God

Restricting access to reproductive services: religious power and moral governance

Women respond: feminist consciousness-raising and activism

Confessions, Kolda rituals, and other surveillance

Abortion, Polish style

The "dying nation" and the postsocialist logics of declining motherhood

Conclusion: the future of women's rights in Poland.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780821421390

0821421395

9780821421406

0821421409

OCLC:

895302215