Polish women ‘betrayed’ by slow pace of abortion reforms

Warsaw (AFP) – An unprecedented mobilisation among women brought a liberal alliance to power in Poland, raising hopes that one of Europe's strictest abortion laws would be scrapped. But now they feel betrayed.

March 8, 2024

A record 74 percent of eligible women voted in the October elections and the mobilisation of young female voters helped pro-Western parties oust the conservative Law and Justice (PiS) government.

Now however, many are voicing anger and frustration, saying the government is dragging its feet on changing the laws on women's reproductive rights.

Continued: https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20240308-polish-women-betrayed-by-slow-pace-of-abortion-reforms-1


Second trimester abortions: a preventable crisis in global abortion care

Diminishing access to second trimester abortions in many countries denies the reality of the rising number of vulnerable women most likely to need a later stage abortion. Sally Howard reports on a preventable crisis in global abortion care

BMJ 2024; 384 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.p2982
Published 31 January 2024
Sally Howard, freelance journalist

Kamila had dearly wanted to have a child. The 27 year old was happily engaged to be married and was 17 weeks pregnant when a scan showed that her fetus was developing without a skull and wouldn’t survive to birth. She was refused an abortion in her home country of Poland, where abortions in the case of fetal abnormality are prohibited.

On her way to the Netherlands, where an abortion had been arranged by the charity Abortion Without Borders, Kamila (not her real name) started bleeding heavily in a petrol station toilet. Distraught and weak, she had to be transported to a German hospital, where she gave birth to a dead fetus in the emergency room. Kamila returned to Poland after a four day hospital stay, with a bill for her medical treatment from the German state.

Poland has some of Europe’s most restrictive abortion laws (fig 1). The law that forced Kamila to travel had been in place since 2020, introduced to Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal (the national court that supervises compliance of statutory law with the country’s constitution) by the Polish Law and Justice Party, which was voted out of power on 19 October 2023. In those three years the ruling has effectively shuttered Polish abortion provision: both medical and surgical abortions are inaccessible in Poland, even in cases where they’re technically legally permitted, such as when there’s a threat to the life or health of the parent.

Continued (Behind paywall): https://www.bmj.com/content/384/bmj.p2982.full


Global: People defending abortion rights are being ‘stigmatised, abused, discriminated against, even killed’ – major new report

24 November 2023
Amnesty International

People who are defending the right to have an abortion and those who provide them, and related essential services are being stigmatised, intimidated, attacked and subjected to unjust prosecutions, making this work increasingly difficult and dangerous to carry out, said Amnesty International in a major new report today (24 November).

In the 59-page report, An Unstoppable Movement: A global call to recognise and protect those who defend the right to abortion, reveals how many healthcare workers, activists and advocates around the world face abuse, arrest, prosecution and imprisonment for supporting the right of women, girls and people who can become pregnant to access abortions.

Continued: https://www.amnesty.org.uk/press-releases/global-people-defending-abortion-rights-are-being-stigmatised-abused-discriminated


In the three years since Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal ruling, Abortion Without Borders has helped more than 125,000 people in Poland to access safe abortion

Wednesday, October 25, 2023

In the three years since Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal ruling, Abortion Without Borders has helped more than 125,000 people in Poland to access safe abortion with more than PLN 3,675,000 (€823,290) in funding.

During the last year (from 22.10.2022 to 22.10.2023), Abortion Without Borders groups helped 46,773 thousand people from Poland to access abortion with more than PLN 1,675,031 (€375,250). More than 1,235 of these people traveled abroad to access a second or third trimester abortion.

Continued: https://womenhelp.org/en/page/1577/new-data-from-abortion-without-borders-in-the-three-years-since


‘I will do the same again’: activists continue fight against Poland’s strict abortion laws

Justyna Wydrzyńska, who was convicted for providing abortion pills, refuses to give up campaign for legal terminations

Jennifer Rankin
Wed 24 May 2023

In February 2020, a desperate woman made a phone call to the activist group Abortion Without Borders.

Ania (not her real name) was 12 weeks’ pregnant with twins and trapped in a relationship with a violent partner. She was also suffering from hyperemesis, an acute pregnancy sickness that left her vomiting multiple times a day, unable to keep down food. She wanted to end her pregnancy, but every avenue was blocked under Poland’s strict abortion laws.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/may/24/i-will-do-the-same-again-activists-continue-fight-against-poland-strict-abortion-laws


Justyna Wydrzyńska’s speech before the European Parliament’s Committee on Women’s Rights

Press release from: aborcyjnydreamteam.pl
Aborcyjnego Dream Teamu  (Abortion Dream Team)

My name is Justyna Wydrzyńska and I have been helping with abortions in Poland for 16 years. More than a month ago, exactly on March 14, I was found guilty by a Polish court of assisting an abortion.

I am one of the people who answers the call of the Abortion Without Borders hotline, operating since December 2019. Every day from 8am to 8pm you can call the number 22 29 22 597 and get support before, during and after abortion with pills at home or get help in leaving the country to have a surgical abortion abroad.

Continued: https://preview.mailerlite.io/emails/webview/90350/86434881410696572


“I Felt That I Had Saved My Own Life”: A Polish Woman’s Harrowing Story of Illegal Abortion

Polish activist Justyna Wydrzyńska is the first woman in Europe to be convicted of “intent to aid” an abortion. For the first time, the woman she helped, Ania, tells the story of her desperate quest to end her pregnancy.

By Rebecca Grant
April 18, 2023

On March 14, 2023, the Polish activist Justyna Wydrzyńska was convicted of “intent to aid” an abortion. Wydrzyńska is a prominent abortion rights activist in Poland, and in February 2020, she was contacted by Ania (a pseudonym), a woman who was desperate for help accessing medication abortion. Ania’s situation was tragic and complicated, and Wydrzyńska was moved by her pleas. She had a pack of abortion pills in her home and sent it to Ania via a courier service, but before Ania could take them, her partner discovered the pills and reported it to the police.

Wydrzyńska was charged in late 2021 and her trial dragged on for a year. With the guilty verdict, she became the first activist in Europe convicted for this type of crime. Her case has attracted international attention, in part because it reflected a new frontier in abortion prosecutions—targeting activists. During the trial, vague details about Ania, and what inspired Wydrzyńska to mail her the pills, filtered out, but Ania has never gone on the record to share what led her to ask for help.

In this exclusive US interview with The Nation, Ania tells her story publicly, in her own words, for the first time. It’s a story of determination, of fear, of solidarity, of loneliness, and of gratitude. It’s also a story of the visceral harm that abortion bans inflict on women, and the lengths people will go to end pregnancies they cannot carry. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

By Ania

A little more than three years ago, my whole life and opinions and worldviews changed completely. I would never have suspected that I would have an unwanted pregnancy and would have taken the decision to terminate it. This way of thinking lasted until the day of [my own experience].

Continued: https://www.thenation.com/article/society/pregnancy-abortion-poland/tnamp/
Longer full story from Abortion Dream Team: https://preview.mailerlite.io/emails/webview/90350/85793279289852940


A woman convicted in Poland for aiding abortion says she did what was right

NPR | By Ari Shapiro, Matt Ozug, Karen Zamora
Published March 17, 2023
Podcast interview - 5:25 mins

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
Poland's abortion laws are some of the most restrictive in Europe. Abortion is almost entirely illegal. Helping someone end a pregnancy can lead to jail time. One year ago, we first heard from an activist in Poland - the first woman to face criminal charges under Polish abortion law for helping a woman in an abusive relationship obtain abortion pills.

JUSTYNA WYDRZYNSKA: She was begging us, please help me somehow.

SHAPIRO: Well, this week, Justyna Wydrzynska received her sentence. A judge in Warsaw gave her eight months of community service. And she joins us now. Welcome to ALL THINGS CONSIDERED.

WYDRZYNSKA: Thank you. Thank you for invitation.

Continued: https://www.vpm.org/npr-news/npr-news/2023-03-17/a-woman-convicted-in-poland-for-aiding-abortion-says-she-did-what-was-right


Poland – Denying Access to Abortion Is Femicide

In Poland, a country held ransom by religious fanatics, people don’t want to see more women suffer from denied abortion care.

1/6/2023
by IRENE DONADIO and MARTA LEMPART

It has been just over two years since the imposition of a near-total ban on abortion across Poland. The ban removed almost all conditions in which a woman can access abortion care, leaving millions of women in the dark when it comes to deciding what happens to their bodies.

For some women, continuing to carry their pregnancies is the most dangerous thing they can do. Even though Poland’s rigid laws state that abortion can be performed to save women’s health or life, many doctors refuse to give them to women who desperately need them. 

Continued: https://msmagazine.com/2023/01/06/poland-abortion-ban-women-death-dying/


Polish NGO submits a bill proposing jail sentences for providing information about and “inciting” abortion

Notes from Poland
DEC 28, 2022

A foundation run by Poland’s most prominent anti-abortion activist, Kaja Godek, has submitted a citizen’s initiative to the parliament that would further tighten one of the already strictest abortion laws in Europe.

The draft legislation, entitled “Abortion is murder”, would introduce a ban on “public advocacy” as well as “information” on the possibility of terminating a pregnancy. It would also see recognition of “inciting to abortion” as a crime carrying up to eight years in jail.

Continued: https://notesfrompoland.com/2022/12/28/polish-ngo-submits-a-bill-proposing-jail-sentences-for-providing-information-about-and-inciting-to-abortion/