Alcohol consumption by women cause of Poland’s low birth rate, says ruling party leader Kaczyński

The fact that so few children are being born in Poland is due in part to alcohol consumption by women, says Jarosław Kaczyński, chairman of the ruling national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party. He claims that women are more at risk from alcoholism than men.

The comments sparked criticism from opposition politicians, who accused the 73-year-old Kaczyński – who has never been married or had children – of being out of touch. They also argued that his government has overseen policies – such as a near-total ban on abortion – that have discouraged women from having children.

However, Kaczyński – who holds no formal role in government but is Poland’s de facto leader – defended his remarks in a further speech, arguing it was his duty to be “honest” about problems affecting society.

The PiS chairman’s original remarks came during a meeting with PiS supporters in the town of Ełk yesterday.

Kaczyński discussed the fact that people in Poland are “having far too few children”. He noted that his party has tried to address this by introducing a number of social programmes designed to financially support families.

Yet despite this, the number of births in Poland has continued to decline during PiS’s seven years in power, reaching historic lows. The country has one of the EU’s lowest fertility rates and last year recorded the bloc’s second-largest population decline.

During his speech in Ełk, Kaczyński argued that this is because there is “cultural resistance” to having children among some sections of society.

He noted that the capital, Warsaw, is the richest part of Poland but also has the lowest birth rate. “So it is not only a material issue, it is a matter of a certain attitude among people, especially women, because it is women who give birth to children.”

The PiS chairman continued by saying that it is “necessary to say openly some bitter truths: if it continues to be the case that, by the age of 25, girls, young women, drink as much as their male peers, there won’t be children”.

“Remember that to develop alcoholism, a man must drink excessively on average for 20 years…but a woman only two,” continued Kaczyński, causing laughter and applause in the audience.

He explained that he knew one of Poland’s leading specialists in alcoholism. The doctor managed to cure “one third of men but no women” he treated for alcoholism, claimed Kaczyński. “So I advise you, including young women, to be careful about it.”

The PiS chairman added, however, that he is “not a supporter of very early motherhood, because a woman must also mature to be a good mother. Until she’s about 25 years old she gets drunk”. That prompted further laughter from the audience and Kaczyński himself.

“I’m kidding a bit, but ladies and gentlemen, this is not a good sign. In these matters, you have to fight certain phenomena” he continued, adding that he is a “sincere supporter of equal rights for women”.

Kaczyński’s remarks quickly drew criticism from opposition politicians.

“With this blithering about ‘getting drunk’, Kaczyński showed how he knows nothing about women, our plans, our dreams and our lives,” tweeted Barbara Nowacka, one of the leaders of Civic Coalition (KO), the main centrist opposition.

“Yet he gave himself the right to decide about our lives, our dreams and our bodies,” she continued. “That is the source of misfortune for young Polish women.”

The latter is a reference to the near-total ban on abortion introduced under the PiS government. Since it went into force at the start of last year, the birth rate has fallen further. A recent survey found that most Poles believe the ban discourages people from having children.

“I don’t know whether to laugh or cry” about the “old bachelor [Kaczyński] showing all that he knows about women”, Urszula Pasławska, an MP from the centre-right Polish People’s Party (PSL) told TVN24. She noted that PiS has itself harmed the birth rate by ending state funding for IVF treatment.

“First Kaczyński created hell for women two years ago by influencing the ban on abortion; today, he accuses women of not having children because they are alcoholics,” added Krzysztof Śmiszek, an MP from The Left (Lewica).

Kaczyński should instead pursue policies that help “women not be afraid of having children”, he added.

Following the controversy, Kaczyński returned to the issue during another speech to supporters today in the town of Olsztyn.

“I mentioned that young women are competing with men in the consumption of alcohol,” he said. “This is objectively harmful and an honest politician – if he knows such a thing, and I know it from a good source – he must talk about it because…certain biological factors make women less resistant to alcohol than men.”

“It is simply harmful,” he repeated, adding that “it finishes around the age of 25 but I don’t want to say why because they’ll again claim that I’m insulting young ladies”.

Main image credit: Patryk Ogorzalek / Agencja Wyborcza.pl

Daniel Tilles

Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.