Mishtal, Joanna The Politics of Morality: The Church, the State, and Reproductive Rights in Postsocialist Poland (review)

Abstract

SEER, 94, 2, APRIL 2016 390 The wide thematic, denominational and geographic spread of the collection — and range of contributors — provides a challenging and thought-provoking read, though the Armenians of Russia (a vast community), Georgia, Iran and the rest of the Middle East could have been covered. Editing is generally good, though stylistic oddities among non-native English contributors occur (including ‘donator’ rather than ‘donor’). But the book opens up many intriguing vistas into the way diverse Armenian communities in various parts of the world do — or do not — participate in or engage with the Christian faith. London Felix Corley Mishtal,Joanna.ThePoliticsofMorality:TheChurch,theState,andReproductive Rights in Postsocialist Poland. Polish and Polish-American Studies Series. Ohio University Press, Athens, OH, 2015. xii + 258 pp. Illustrations. Figures. Notes. Bibliography. Index. £19.99 (paperback). This book is based on the argument that the political organization of reproduction lies at the heart of the making of postsocialist Poland. It is not free market liberalism, nor the spread of NGOs, but a new kind of church-state genderregimethatisemblematicofdemocratizationinPoland.Thecurtailment of reproductive rights, Joanna Mishtal argues, has been intrinsic to this regime. Mishtal’s aim is to make a theoretical contribution to the understanding of the significance of transition politics for feminist mobilization: the churchinspired loss of reproductive rights has led to intensified feminist mobilization in Poland, but feminist consolidation has been greatly hindered because of the overriding power of the Catholic Church in postsocialist politics. Mishtal defines the contribution of her study, firstly, in terms of the development of moral governance as a theoretical framework. Using Foucault’s concept of governmentality and theorizing the church as a regime of disciplinary power, she expands Foucault’s concept by extending it to the analysis of the gendered effects of religious power. Her second contribution is the idea of informal biopolitics as a label for the informal actions taken by individual women which contravene the strictures of the church. Mishtal has collected a range of material over a number of years, and begins her story with a discussion of the state-church relationship under Communism, where negotiations between church and state paved the way for a close relationship after 1989. She considers the 1993 abortion ban, the extent to which the new restrictions were accepted, the challenges that have been raised in the European court of Human Rights, and the impact of the REVIEWS 391 restrictive legislation on feminist consciousness. The book goes on to discuss the techniques of surveillance through which the Catholic Church exercises its power, and discusses in some detail the ways in which women and privately practicing gynaecologists conspire to make access to illegal but high quality abortion procedures relatively straightforward, as long as the women involved are sufficiently affluent to cover the costs. A number of questions arise with regard to the conceptual framework of the book. For instance, underlying Mishtal’s theoretical framework is a binary opposition between a depoliticized liberal democracy, and the (unequalizing) power of the church. As she concludes: ‘the special status of the church is decisive (in the lack of legitimation of women’s rights in postsocialism) in that it undermines the liberal tenets of egalitarianism inherent in a liberal democracy’ (p. 197). This seems to elide the significant body of feminist work which has shown how, historically, secular liberalism has defined the ‘individual’ as male — in contradiction of liberalism’s own tenets of equality. Again, how legitimate is it to define the form of church power in Poland in terms of governmentality and disciplinary power? These concepts presuppose liberalism, yet the church continues to be defined, among others by feminists, as an obstacle to liberal ideology taking hold. The book deals with Polish feminism in an overly truncated fashion, and important facets are left out. There is no reference to the diversity of opinion among Polish feminists, or the fact that liberal versions of feminism dominate the liberal/neoliberal mainstream media. Significant developments such as the founding in 2009 of Kongres Kobiet, a liberal and in many ways neoliberal NGO funded by the European Union, do not figure in the book. In conclusion, Mishtal quotes Ann Snitow who asks: ‘Can Poland allow for an...