Abortion in the State of Exception

Abstract In the current revival of fundamentalist right-wing politics globally, Poland occupies an important place given the struggles for abortion and reproductive justice that have been ongoing there since 2016. Together with Mexican, Argentinian, South Korean, and Italian women, Polish feminists contributed to creating the International Women's Strike, which later spread throughout the globe, uniting movements in seventy countries. This article discusses the symmetric heroisms imposed by the conservative governments on women, who have to give birth “no matter what,” as well as on men, who are told to “defend their fatherland.” Such acute, gendered demands for heroism also perpetuate the binary heteromatrix, further marginalizing LGBTQIA+ people and groups. Recent Polish struggles have contributed to the shift in feminist proabortion narratives from the liberal one, centered on choice, to others more preoccupied with reproductive justice. This article argues that the recent legal limitations on access to abortion in Poland and other countries are central to the current effort to reestablish the rule of the state of exception. It also analyzes the weak resistance of grassroots feminist movements organizing for reproductive justice. The refusal to participate in heroic politics requires not only work for better access to abortion but also an alternative kind of subject formation, here tentatively defined as “unheroic,” as well as politics of weak resistance.