The Politics of Morality

<div> <p>After the fall of the state socialist regime and the end of martial law in 1989 Polish society experienced both a sense of relief from the tyranny of Soviet control and an expectation that democracy would bring freedom. After this initial wave of enthusiasm however political forces that had lain concealed during the state socialist era began to emerge and establish a new religious-nationalist orthodoxy. While Solidarity garnered most of the credit for democratization in Poland it had worked quietly with the Catholic Church to which a large majority of Poles at least nominally adhered. As the church emerged as a political force in the Polish Sejm and Senate it precipitated a rapid erosion of women's reproductive rights especially the right to abortion which had been relatively well established under the former regime.</p> <p><i>The Politics of Morality</i> is an anthropological study of this expansion of power by the religious right and its effects on individual rights and social mores. It explores the contradictions of postsocialist democratization in Poland: an emerging democracy on one hand and a declining tolerance for reproductive rights women's rights and political and religious pluralism on the other. Yet as this thoroughly researched study shows women resist these strictures by pursuing abortion illegally defying religious prohibitions on contraception and organizing into advocacy groups. As struggles around reproductive rights continue in Poland these resistances and unofficial practices reveal the sharp limits of religious form of governance.</p> </div>