Kraków council votes to ban images of aborted foetuses in public space

Kraków city council has passed a resolution to prohibit the display of graphic images in public spaces. The measure is aimed in particular at signs and billboards showing the remains of terminated foetuses, which are often used by anti-abortion activists.

The issue has been a longstanding controversy in the city, as well as in other parts of Poland. Many argue that members of the public – especially children or people who have suffered miscarriages – should not be forced to look at such imagery. (Note: some such images appear lower down in this article.)

The proposed prohibition in Kraków concerns pictures of dead bodies or parts thereof displayed publicly, for example on posters, billboards, vehicles and trailers, reports Interia. Individuals contravening it would be subject to a fine.

The vote, the result of a grassroots citizens’ initiative which had collected almost double the required 300 signatures, passed by a majority of 25 to 15 on the council.

“These billboards have nothing to do with reliable information on abortion,” Ewa Owerczuk, spokesperson for the committee submitting the initiative, told councillors.

“They are a lie, sowing fear and having the intention of terrorising mothers, fathers, children and doctors,” she continued. “They expose sensitive people to trauma and cause stress to pregnant women and those who have had difficult experiences with childbirth or miscarriage.”

However, Kraków’s mayor has issued a negative opinion on the resolution, and city councillors accept that the prohibition is likely to be overturned by the provincial governor, who is appointed by the conservative national government.

Graphic anti-abortion displays showing photographs of the remains of terminated foetuses have become a common sight in Polish cities.

Some are permanent fixtures placed on trailers outside hospitals or displayed on advertising boards. Others are exhibited by protesters collecting signatures in support of their cause and opposing pro-choice demonstrations. Some have featured on mobile billboards driven around the streets.

In 2016, residents of one district in Kraków complained to the police about the appearance next to a major road of a large anti-abortion billboard featuring an image of an aborted foetus. The local building inspectorate later declared that it had been placed there illegally.

The organisation responsible for the advert, Fundacja Pro, defended itself, saying that “abortion – that is, murdering a child – is a drastic crime, so the billboard must be drastic too. We’re showing the truth”.

In 2018, an activist from Fundacja Pro was cleared by a court in Kraków. It found that displaying such images in the public space constituted a misdemeanour, but that the man had been unaware he might be breaking the law.

Last year, however, a court in Wrocław fined the same foundation 5,000 zloty for two offences – displaying indecent pictures in a public place and causing scandal – in response to a complaint over a similar billboard in a prominent place in the city.

In 2017, a court in Kielce acquitted a man who had torn down Fundacja Pro anti-abortion posters displayed 200 metres from a preschool. The judge said that forcing members of the public to view such images was “absolutely unacceptable”.

Fundacja Pro has also been embroiled in legal action over mobile billboard trailers in Kraków. The road authority said it had not obtained necessary permits for advertising. Fundacja Pro argues that the images just happen to be displayed on one of its vehicles, which needs to be parked somewhere.

Although the new resolution in Kraków was passed by a majority of councillors, the council’s rule-of-law committee and the city’s mayor, Jacek Majchrowski, have both both issued negative opinions on the proposal, reports TVN.

Majchrowski – who was elected for a fifth consecutive term in 2018 as a representative of the national opposition – noted that anti-abortion images are most often displayed at public gatherings, where the city authorities have limited jurisdiction.

He added that it was likely the resolution would be overturned by the governor of Małopolska Province, where Kraków is located, or the provincial administrative court. Some councillors agreed.

“I support the content of this resolution with all my heart, but it is completely incompatible with the legal system operating in Poland,” said Andrzej Hawranek, a member of Civic Platform (PO), Poland’s largest opposition party, quoted by TVN24. PO’s councillors voted in favour of the ban.

Councillor Łukasz Gibała of the Kraków for Residents association – which was also in favour – said that the resolution is “99% likely” to be repealed by the governor, Łukasz Kmita, a politician from the nationally ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party. PiS councillors voted against the prohibition.

Gibała argues that a better solution would be for the municipality to refuse permission for or break up assemblies where such images were displayed, following the example of Wrocław and Sopot, two other opposition-controlled cities.

Main image credit: Katarzyna Bednarczyk / Agencja Gazeta

Ben Koschalka

Ben Koschalka is a translator and senior editor at Notes from Poland. Originally from Britain, he has lived in Kraków since 2005.