Policing Abortion in Poland The Role of Street-Level Law Enforcement Bureaucrats in Shaping Anti-Abortion Policy

The criminalization of abortion inevitably involves law enforcement agencies in the implementation of reproductive health policy. It entails the policing of certain aspects of abortion care services, their providers, and their clients. Frontline law enforcement officials involved in policing illegal abortions (i.e., police officers and prosecutors), as any other streetlevel bureaucrats (SLBs), possess discretionary power which can be used with either beneficial or detrimental outcomes to policy clients. As several reported incidents in Poland indicate, law enforcement SLBs may use their discretion to impose restrictions and sanctions on abortion that go beyond the provisions contained in the anti-abortion policy's design. This paper presents a qualitative case study of two real-life examples of the use of discretion by law enforcement SLBs in implementing anti-abortion policy in Poland. Drawing on theoretical frameworks of streetlevel bureaucracy and reproductive justice, it aims to demonstrate that law enforcement SLBs' use of discretion may not only enforce anti-abortion policies, but also reinforce their restrictiveness and punitiveness. The research contributes to the scholarship advocating the decriminalization of abortion.