How in Poland abortions are banned and those who assist in terminating unwanted pregnancies are prosecuted
Abortion laws in Poland are among the strictest in Europe. Last year, the Constitutional Tribunal upheld a decision to virtually completely ban abortions. The court ruled that abortion is not permissible if the fetus is diagnosed with an incurable disease or irreversible defects that threaten its life. Prior to this, 98% of abortions in the country were performed for this reason. In January 2021, the decision came into force, despite protests — the largest since the fall of communism.
What guided the court? The termination of pregnancy, as noted in the decision, means depriving the child of the right to life, while the Constitution guarantees the right to life to all Polish citizens.
The second large-scale protest took place when it became known that a 30-year-old pregnant woman died as a result of septic shock, which began after the amniotic fluid ruptured.
Doctors refused to perform an abortion, despite the congenital malformation of the fetus — now it is prohibited.
The woman was hospitalized at 22 weeks of pregnancy. As a result, the fetus died, and the woman developed septic shock. She died 24 hours after the water broke.
The deceased is survived by her husband and daughter. The family's lawyer said that the woman contacted relatives and said that doctors did not terminate the pregnancy and refrained from an emergency abortion until the fetus died, even though the woman herself was in danger.
According to the lawyer, the doctors acted within the framework of the new law, according to which pregnancy cannot be terminated even if the fetus has incurable diseases. Abortion is allowed only if there is a threat to the life and health of the mother. Hospital representatives said that they cared about the health and life of the patient and the fetus and acted in accordance with the law.
Supporters of the ban on abortion refer to the provision of the Constitution, according to which every citizen of Poland has the right to life. The Catholic Church fully supports and promotes the ban on abortion. Some priests say that abortions in cases of rape or a threat to a woman's health should also be prohibited (they are still allowed as an exception).
One of the abortion ban lobbyists, MP Bartłomiej Wróblewski, argued that maternity hospitals would create wards for women who gave birth to seriously ill children, where they could cry, as well as hospices for such newborns in each province, plus financial support for such families would be increased.
After the death of the 30-year-old mother, protests took place throughout the country, the largest of which was in Warsaw, where tens of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets demanding a change in the law.
According to official data, about two thousand abortions are performed annually in Poland. However, human rights activists claim that in fact more than 200,000 Polish women terminate their pregnancies every year in clandestine conditions or do so abroad.
There is even the concept of «abortion tourism». The scale of this phenomenon cannot be assessed: pregnant women travel to different countries and hide the purpose of their trip.
Nevertheless, the demand is so high that clinics in Slovakia, Austria and Germany hire Polish-speaking employees and telephone consultants on staff. Ukraine is also on the list of popular routes, especially for border cities.
There are several public initiatives that help women have abortions abroad; organizations exist through donations.
Buying pills for pharmacological abortion or emergency contraception also often has to be done abroad. In Poland, «emergency» contraception can only be purchased with a prescription, and it is sometimes only possible to get an appointment at a state clinic several weeks after making an appointment.
At the same time, buying pills for yourself, storing them at home and taking them if necessary is legal, but helping, for example, a friend is not. Criminal liability is provided for assistance in abortion. There is a known case when the boyfriend of a 20-year-old Polish woman was sent to jail for six months for taking her to Ukraine for an abortion and giving her money for it. The pregnant woman's mother was also punished for inducing her to do so.
In the history of independent Poland, there was only one case when a woman who wanted to have an abortion but was not allowed to was able to win the case, but at the level of the European Court of Human Rights.
Alicia Tysiąc was the mother of two children when she became pregnant with her third. The woman had serious vision problems, and she was seriously afraid that childbirth would worsen her condition. She appealed to several doctors to allow her to have an abortion, but in the end she was forced to give birth. As a result, her vision deteriorated — she became a group I disabled person.
Alicia was the first woman to publicly tell her story, how the ban on abortion ended for her 20 years ago. Now she supports protests against the ban on abortion. By the decision of the ECHR, Poland paid her 25 thousand euros.
In fact, suing the state is the only way in this regard, since the decision of the Constitutional Court on the ban on abortions is final; it is simply impossible to appeal it within the country.
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