Pandora’s box was opened by Maria Karystianou’s remarks yesterday, as her response to a question about abortions on the television station Open provoked both negative and positive reactions from the political world, as well as within the ranks of the victims’ relatives.

It all began when Ms. Karystianou gave a wide-ranging interview yesterday. Asked about abortions, she said: “Because I respect free will and it is constitutionally enshrined, I believe this is a matter for public consultation; let society decide what it would like to happen. There is a particularity to this issue, because it concerns the rights of the woman, but also of the fetus.” Invoking her medical background, she added: “Because I am also a pediatrician, due to my science I am torn as to which rights should prevail; I cannot rank them.”

Along the same lines, she concluded: “A woman can decide about her body; the issue is that in the case of abortions there is another moral issue that, for me, is very important. The issue is not what I believe or what you believe; that’s why I am talking about public consultation—it is more democratic, because we are talking about a life that is now being born.”

Asked to comment on Karystianou’s remarks, Government Spokesperson Pavlos Marinakis stressed that “the most shocking thing is that this was said by a doctor. We are not going to go back to debates that have been settled.” “The river does not flow backward. Every woman, every person is responsible for determining their own body—full stop,” he concluded. This was followed by a wave of statements from opposition parties condemning Karystianou’s remarks.

“Only the far right questions the achievement of the right to abortion, since fundamental individual and human rights are neither put to questions nor subjected to public consultation,” said SYRIZA–Progressive Alliance spokesperson Kostas Zachariadis, adding that “fundamental individual and human rights are neither questioned nor put to public consultation.” In the same vein, the party’s Shadow Minister for Rights and Equality, Elena Akrita, noted: “Human rights are not bargained over or weighed by referendums and consultations. Ms. Karystianou says she is ideologically neither right nor left. However, her questioning of the right to abortion automatically places her in the Niki party, which is already represented in Parliament.” Many SYRIZA figures also condemned Karystianou’s stance on social media.

PASOK, for its part, recalled that “the issue of abortions has been definitively settled. The PASOK government of Andreas Papandreou, with Law 1609/1986, made the right of every woman to decide safely for her own body a reality. Access to safe abortion is an inalienable right.” “Today is the time for more rights for women, in the direction shown by PASOK’s program, and not for backsliding,” concluded Harilaou Trikoupi (PASOK headquarters), while Anna Diamantopoulou remarked: “We women have won our rights through struggles and we are not going back. Not one step back.”

Among the first to react were senior figures of the New Left, such as Effie Achtsioglou and Gabriel Sakellaridis. Speaking on ERTnews, party leader Alexis Haritsis said yesterday: “Fundamental rights are not placed in consultation frameworks. Full stop,” adding his concern about a line of thinking that invokes Justice in a way that entails the removal of fundamental rights.

The KKE also condemned Karystianou’s statements in strong terms, stating that “the questioning of women’s right to legal and safe abortion by Ms. Maria Karystianou reveals the reactionary, conservative ideas of her party under formation. This hard-won right is not subject to ‘public consultation’; it is non-negotiable and must be accompanied by all necessary scientific and social support, within the framework of an exclusively public and free health system.” It concluded: “Once again it is confirmed that behind vague declarations it is very easy for anachronistic, conservative, and reactionary ideas to be hidden.”

“Far-right logics”

Behind the opposition parties’ statements, however, lies the need to “expose” Maria Karystianou’s ideological and political origins so they can be understood by the electorate as soon as possible. Acknowledging that time is needed for society to absorb her orientation and true beliefs, “abortions gave the signal,” an opposition figure told protothema.gr, in the context of highlighting the allegedly “far-right logic” of Karystianou’s political agenda, which clearly distinguishes her from progressive parties, as their cadres explain.

The supporters

Nevertheless, independent MP from Thessaloniki and former member of Niki, Nikos Papadopoulos, spoke in support of Maria Karystianou yesterday, saying his personal views on abortions are “unshakeable and non-negotiable.” As a cardiothoracic surgeon, he expressed—according to his statement—“sadness and shame” over the “pogrom of political correctness against the unborn child.” Taking an openly supportive stance, Mr. Papadopoulos pointed out that the question addressed to Karystianou about abortions was not intended as dialogue but aimed at publicly exposing her. As he said, it was a “targeted” intervention, part of a broader effort to silence those who challenge the dominant narrative.

At the same time, support for the former President of the Association of Victims’ Relatives also came from Karystianou’s lawyer, Stelios Sourlas, who said: “What did Ms. Karystianou say? That given today’s data, to what extent this right should exist. And there is a weighing of rights. Do the rights of the woman prevail over those of an unborn child?” he asked. He then stated that during an abortion “a baby is killed in a horrific way. If someone watches an abortion, it is a horrific killing of a human being who cannot defend itself.”