Abortion enters Finnish election campaign
Protest against Polish strict abortion laws. A hanger is the symbol for illegal abortions. Pro-choice activists claim that many women lost their lives because of clandestine abortions. Photo EPA, Robert Ghement
Northern Europe
Amidst national elections, Finland’s Prime Minister Sanna Marin allegedly offered free abortion for Polish women. An assistant of the PM denies these claims made by a Polish opposition leader.
In early March, Marin met with a delegation of politicians from Lewica (The Left), Poland’s second-largest opposition group. Afterwards, one of The Left’s leaders, Robert Biedroń, a member of the European Parliament who had attended the meeting, tweeted that “we have an agreement on free abortion for Polish women in Finland”. “Sanna Marin’s office wants to help Polish women access their basic rights,” he continued. “We are starting to discuss details, and we will finalise the issue in the new term of the Finnish government.”
Although the issue was already on display in Polish media earlier this month, it took until this week to appear in Finnish media as well. The Christian politician Päivi Räsänen reacted critically toward Marin on Twitter: “The abortion promise is senseless and heartless – our health services are needed for Finns, not for destroying the lives of Polish children”, she writes. “Another reason to vote for the Christian Democrat’s voice of reason and vote Marin out of her position.”
Finland is in the middle of a national election campaign. Facing recession and soaring consumer price inflation, Prime Minister Sanna Marin is fighting to stay in power, with her left-wing Social Democratic Party (SDP) tied for second place in the poll, Reuters reports.
Promises
However, according to an unnamed member of Marin’s staff, Marin only held “a courtesy meeting that lasted about 10 minutes” with the Polish delegation. This reports Notes from Poland. The Polish delegation described the country’s human rights situation to the prime minister and expressed the hope that in the future, cooperation to defend women’s rights in Europe could be intensified,” added the source. “No promises of any kind were made to the delegation at the meeting.”
The newspaper also contacted Biedroń, who said that the situation had been misinterpreted. According to him, no promises were made at the meeting. “We agreed to join forces to help Polish women in the future to have access to free and legal abortions. It was not that the government led by Sanna Marin would help Polish women or that any written or even verbal commitment had been made.”
Abroad
The Polish government further tightened abortion legislation in January 2021 with a near-total ban. This resulted in an increasing number of women going abroad for an abortion. Several European countries announced to assist these women. The Belgium government offered funding to help pay for Polish women to travel abroad, while the government in the Netherlands announced plans to do the same. These plans, however, have not yet been implemented.
The Finnish people will head to the voting booth on April 2nd. Marin currently governs a five-party coalition. With as many as ten parties currently represented in parliament, the ultimate formation of a government will likely be subject to post-election coalition talks lasting weeks.
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