Ireland's Communist Party: Mother and Baby Homes scandal reveals decades of church and state repression of women

A horrendous scandal that exposes decades of institutionalised patriarchal and misogynist values has been revealed in Ireland. Thousands of infants died in Irish homes for unmarried mothers and their offspring mostly run by the Catholic Church from the 1920s to the 1990s, an inquiry found on Tuesday, an “appalling” mortality rate that reflected brutal living conditions.

The report, which covered 18 so-called Mother and Baby Homes where over decades young pregnant women were hidden from society, is the latest in a series of government-commissioned papers that have laid bare some of the Catholic Church’s worst abuses.

Polish communists strongly condemn abortion ban ruling

“Forcing women to give birth to terminally ill, deformed children, incapable of having an independent and conscious life is a crime”, points out the Communist Party of Poland (KPP) commenting on the recent controversial ruling by the country's constitutional court which banned almost all abortions.

According to the reactionary decision, abortions carried out when the fetus is malformed, which accounted for 98% of legal terminations last year, are outlawed. Although fewer than 2,000 legal abortions are carried out each year in Poland, it is estimated than up to 200,000 terminations are either performed illegally, or abroad.