#4 Poland
This episode is about abortion rights and political protest in Poland. The idea for this podcast series came about under the impression of the strong protests in Poland in autumn 2021 against the tightening of the already restrictive legislation on abortion. Only since 1993 abortion is mostly ban and this happened during the change of social system, which promised more liberal rights and gave the hope of freedom.
Now in 2020/21 the amount of protesting women (but also men) in autumn was very impressive. We want to know: how did they manage to mobilize so many people? We talk to Karolina Micula, a musican, performer and activist, who chooses many different forms of protesting (and is pictured on the front page of the podcasts’ website). Our second guest is Terry Reintke, member of the European Parliament for the Green Group since 2014 and currently also its Vice President. She demands that the EU intervenes in Polish breaches of fundamental rights and supports the Polish activists by saying „Your struggle is our struggle.“
#3 Colombia
In this episode of CHOICE we are focussing on abortion rights in Colombia. We are talking to Mónica Roa, a Colombian Lawyer for Human Rights. She is founder and director of the organization BRIDGES and has been working for Women’s Link Worldwide for more than 12 years. In 2006 she became a public figure when she filed a constitutional lawsuit that resulted in the liberalization of abortion laws in Colombia. Our second guest is Franziska Pröll – a freelance german Journalist that – during the last year – has been reporting from Colombia on social an educational topics, amongst others for or the german newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and ZEIT online.
„Reproductive rights means that YOU are the one that gets to decide if you want to use contraceptives, if you want an abortion or if you want to have a child. And the state cannot impose that decision on you. During those years of conflict women within the guerrilla were being forced to have abortions, women outside the guerrilla in urban life were being prohibited to have an abortion – in both cases the state was not protecting or respecting our reproductive rights.“ (Mónica Roa)
#1: Ireland
2018 passierte in Irland Erstaunliches. Im stark katholisch geprägten Land das Verbot von Schwangerschaftsabbrüchen per Referendum gekippt und ist seitdem bis zur 12. Schwangerschaftswoche legal. Wir sprechen mit der Autorin und Journalistin Una Mullally, die mit Repeal the 8th Anthology eine Sammlung von Schriften, Gedichten und Fotografien herausgegeben hat, die die Wucht der Kampagne für reproduktive Rechte im Land im Jahr 2018 einfangen. Sie ist Kolumnistin für The Irisch Times. Ebenfalls aus Irland, in Kinsale, ist die deutsche Auslandskorrespondentin und Journalistin Mareike Graepel vom Netzwerk DEINE KORRESPONDENTIN. „Sobald man das Schweigen bricht, bricht man auf eine Art auch mit dem Stigma, und sobald man das Stigma bricht, bricht man auch mit der Scham.“ Una Mullally