Abortion Democracy: Poland/South
Africa
Germany 2007/8
Language: English/Polish with English subtitles
60 min.
Written and Directed by Sarah Diehl
Editor: Beck Ofek
This Documentary feature explores and contrasts changes in Poland and South Africa regarding abortion
laws and their impact on the lives of women.
In the 90’s, Poland banned abortion due to the increasing influence of the Catholic Church after the fall of
communism; around the same time South Africa legalized it, reforming the health system after the fall of
apartheid.
The film reveals how the legal status of women is a direct result of the silencing or empowering of
women’s voices. In the Polish society and media, women’s perspectives were made invisible;
in South Africa, on the other hand, they were invited to give public hearings in the parliament about
problems in the realm of reproduction.
The film aims to emphasize the need for safe abortions and liberal abortion laws. It also, however,
illustrates the paradox that the implementation of such laws may have little effect on the accessibility of
abortion services. In Poland, for example, illegal abortions are quite
available and relatively safe; in South Africa, where the law is very liberal, women have a harder time
getting information and services in public hospitals due to jugmental behaviour of the health staff. Only a
change in the fundamental social and cultural attitudes towards abortion, contraception, and reproductive
health can ensure a woman’s right to choose.
Abortion Democracy lets its subjects speak for themselves. Interviews include personal stories from
activists, researchers, health staff, patients and other men and women who live with the problems every
day. It is a thought provoking and challenging film for any audience interested in the international struggle
for human rights.
Abortion Democracy will be available for public screening after May 2008.
The director Sarah Diehl is a filmmaker, journalist, editor and writer from Berlin,Germany. She is working
about Reproductive Rights for many years and gives lectures around that topic throughout the
germanspeaking countries. She published two anthologies around these issues in germany:
Brüste Kriegen (Getting Breasts), Verbrecher Verlag, 2004 and
Deproduktion – Schwangerschaftsabbruch im internationalen Kontext
(Deproduktion – Abortion in an international context), Alibri Verlag, 2007)
Interviewees
Poland
Agata Chelstowska Pro-Choice Alliance, Anthropologist, Warsaw
Malgorzata Danicka Pro-Choice Alliance, Warsaw
Bettina Gerhardt Social worker, Krakow
Bozena Jawien Feminist gynecologist, Krakow
Kascha Pro-Choice Alliance, Warsaw
Monika Kocot User of the womenonweb.com service
Wanda Nowicka Federation for Women and Family Planning, Warsaw
Magdalena Pochec Youact, Federation for Women and Family Planning,
Warsaw
Michal Placzek Pro-Choice Alliance, Warsaw
Agnieszka Szabla Centrum Praw Kobiet, Krakow
Anna Lipowska-Teutsch TIK (Towarzystwo Interwencji Kryszysowej, Crisis
Intervention Center, Krakow)
Alicja Tysiac Sued the Polish government in landmark EU court case
because of a denied abortion and her resulting visual
impairment, Warsaw
Beata Zaduminska Centrum Praw Kobiet, Krakow
Anna Zawadzka Editor, Gazetta Wyborcha, Instigated the failed
Polish “I had an abortion“ Campaign, Warsaw
Ewa Waszkiewicz Economist, University of Wroclaw
South Africa
Richard Burzelmann Coordinator of Abortion Services in Western Cape
province
Marijke Alblas Doctor, Cape Town
Nurrudin Farrah Somali Author, lives in Cape Town
Ida Aronica Frawces Nurse, Public Health Care Center, Atlantis
Jade Freeman Young pregnant homeless women, Cape Town
Jane Harries Women Health Research Unit Medical School, Cape
Town
Sister Caroline Mamuel Nurse, Public Health Care Center, Atlantis
Noluthando Ntlokwana Woman Legal Center, Cape Town
Awino Okeck Mother Tongue Theater, Cape Town
Glenn de Swardt Triangle Project, Cape Town
Marion Stevens Reproductive Right Alliance (RRA), Cape Town
Marieta de Vos Mosaic Center for Women, Cape Town
Somikazi Xaso Social Worker, Public Health Care Center, Khayelitsha
Anonymus patients Public Health Care Center, Khayelitsha
