Poland has some of the strictest abortion laws in Europe. Izabela Sajbor’s family say those laws are responsible for her death

By Saskya Vandoorne and Melissa Bell, CNN
Wed June 29, 2022

Warsaw, Poland (CNN) Izabela Sajbor knew for weeks that the baby she was carrying was unlikely to live long. On September 22 last year, she realized both their fates were sealed.

"I hope I won't get sepsis because then I won't leave this place," the 30-year-old wrote in a series of distraught text messages to her mother, just 12 hours before she died.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/28/europe/poland-abortion-law-izabela-sajbor-death-intl-cmd/index.html

Poland – She Sent a Woman Abortion Pills. Now She Faces 3 Years in Prison.

Justyna Wydrzyńska is the first activist charged under Poland’s incredibly strict abortion laws. She tells VICE World News it won't stop her helping people who need abortions.

By Ruby Lott-Lavigna
June 16, 2022

WARSAW, Poland – The woman said she needed an abortion. She said she had already tried to leave Poland to get one, but her abusive husband had stopped her, threatening to go to the police. Across the world, a new virus was closing borders, restricting travel and trapping people inside their homes, and Justyna Wydrzyńska, sensing a chilling desperation, decided to send the woman a packet of abortion pills that she’d been keeping for her own personal use.

A year passed. Then out of nowhere, police arrived at Wydrzyńska’s door to search her home – some officers finding more than they anticipated.

Continued: https://www.vice.com/en/article/akezek/poland-abortion-justyna-wydrzynska

How women are resisting Poland’s abortion ban

By Costanza Spocci
26 May 2022

Warsaw, Poland – On a cold, hazy December morning, the Ryz sisters stand on a sidewalk of a busy street in Warsaw.

“Shall we go to church?” 24-year-old Olympia asks her sister, Melania, grinning and holding up a dozen pink, yellow and grey stickers with the words, “Abortion is OK”, and the hotline numbers and social media profiles of Polish pro-choice organisations.

Continued: https://www.aljazeera.com/features/longform/2022/5/26/how-women-are-resisting-polands-abortion-ban

26.05.2022

Abortion Without Borders

Agnieszka T

Aleksander Stępkowski

All-Poland Women's Strike

European Court of Human Rights

FEDERA

Federation for Women and Family Planning

Law and Justice party

Ogólnopolski Strajk Kobiet

Olympia Ryz

Ordo Luris

Polish Episcopal Conference

registry of pregnant women

septic shock

severe foetal abnormalities

‘Declare it to a doctor, and it’s over’: Ukrainian women face harsh reality of Poland’s abortion laws

Women turn to aid groups for help, with many unaware their rights to reproductive healthcare have vanished upon crossing the border

Weronika Strzyżyńska
Tue 10 May 2022

When the first Russian bombs fell on Ukraine, Myroslava Marchenko was a gynaecologist at a private clinic in Kyiv. The next day, one of her patients was due to have an abortion after prenatal tests showed a high chance of Down’s syndrome.

Instead, like millions across the country, Marchenko and her patient fled to safety, crossing the border into Poland where abortions due to foetal abnormalities – or “on eugenic grounds” in the language of the country’s constitutional tribunal – are illegal.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2022/may/10/ukrainian-women-face-harsh-reality-poland-abortion-laws

Activist on trial in Poland for providing abortion pills in ‘European first’

By Euronews with AFP
April 8, 2022

A Polish activist has been charged with helping a woman get an abortion in the first trial of its kind in Europe.

Justyna Wydrzyńska is accused of providing abortion pills to a pregnant woman, who said she was a victim of domestic violence in 2020.

Continued: https://www.euronews.com/2022/04/08/activist-on-trial-in-poland-for-providing-abortion-pills-in-european-first

08.04.2022

Amnesty International

Polish woman is first activist to face trial for violating strict abortion law

Justyna Wydrzyńska, who gave a woman experiencing domestic violence miscarriage-inducing pills, could be jailed for three years

Weronika Strzyżyńska
Mon 28 Mar 2022

The first pro-choice activist to be charged in Poland for breaking the country’s strict abortion law by providing miscarriage-inducing tablets to a pregnant woman is due to face trial next week.

Justyna Wydrzyńska, from the Polish group Aborcyjny Dream Team (ADT), is charged with illegally aiding an abortion and faces up to three years in prison if she is found guilty.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2022/mar/28/polish-woman-is-first-to-face-trial-for-violating-strict-abortion-law

Poles march against abortion ban after pregnant woman’s death

Protesters link woman’s death by septic shock to new restrictions on ending unviable pregnancies

Weronika Strzyżyńska
Sat 6 Nov 2021

“Her heart was beating too,” thousands of protesters across Poland chanted on Saturday during demonstrations sparked by the death of a pregnant 30-year-old woman in hospital. Her family say that the hospital staff refused her life-saving health care because they were afraid of breaking the country’s strict abortion law.

Demonstrators were joined by senior opposition politicians, including Donald Tusk, the former president of the European Council.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/nov/06/poles-march-against-abortion-ban-after-pregnant-womans-death

06.11.2021

Her heart was beating too

Activists on the horror of Poland’s near-total abortion ban

Despite mass protests, global criticism, and already strict abortion laws, the country’s government has rolled back women’s rights even further

1 February 2021
Brit Dawson

Women in Poland right now face the most significant rollbacks on fundamental rights in recent history. Last week (January 27), the country’s right wing government moved to implement a near-total ban on abortion, despite the ruling sparking mass protests and global criticism when it was first declared three months ago.

Pro-choice activists immediately took to the streets and social media, leading the biggest protests in the country’s recent history. In November, after almost two weeks of demonstrations, the government announced that it was delaying the abortion ban. Now, however, it’s been enforced with immediate effect.

Continued: https://www.dazeddigital.com/politics/article/51808/1/activists-on-the-horror-of-poland-near-total-abortion-ban

As Poland defies ‘European values,’ women resist on streets and online

As Poland defies 'European values,' women resist on streets and online

By Eliza Mackintosh, CNN
Wed April 22, 2020

(CNN)Marta Gorczynska got in her car and started driving.

She didn't have a destination as she passed through Warsaw's mostly deserted streets, but, just before noon last Tuesday, she got a text with directions: go to Rondo Dmowskiego.

Gorczynska, a human rights lawyer, was among a throng of protesters that used their vehicles to defy Poland's lockdown and block the main roundabout in the capital, honking their horns and shouting slogans against a citizen's bill to tighten what are already some of the most restrictive abortion laws anywhere in Europe.

Continued: https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/22/europe/poland-protest-abortion-lockdown-intl/index.html

Abortion activists in Poland fret as coronavirus curbs access

Abortion activists in Poland fret as coronavirus curbs access

Alicja Ptak, Reuters
March 21, 2020

WARSAW — Natalia Broniarczyk, an activist with a charity that assists Polish women who want to terminate pregnancies, says its hot line began ringing non-stop after the government announced border closures to stem the coronavirus outbreak last week.

Many callers were worried about their shipments of abortion pills, which are illegal in Poland, and others feared they would not be able to reach clinics abroad in time to have the procedure, which is unavailable in Poland in most cases.

Continued: https://nationalpost.com/pmn/health-pmn/abortion-activists-in-poland-fret-as-coronavirus-curbs-access