Court upholds Polish mayor’s decision to dissolve anti-abortion protest over image of foetus

Mar 17, 2025
Notes from Poland

A court has upheld a decision by the city of Toruń to dissolve an anti-abortion protest because it featured a graphic image purporting to show an aborted foetus.

The organiser of the protest has condemned the ruling, which she says “violates the constitution, the law, freedom of speech and freedom of religion”.

But the city’s mayor welcomed the court’s decision, saying that, while he supports free speech, it must be expressed in a manner consistent with the law and without violating the dignity of others.

Continued: https://notesfrompoland.com/2025/03/17/court-upholds-polish-mayors-decision-to-dissolve-anti-abortion-protest-over-image-of-foetus/

17.03.2025

News

Agnieszka Szumilas-HermanowiczOrdo Iuris

anti-choice lies

anti-choice propaganda

anti-choice protesters

Bartosz Malewski

graphic images of aborted fetuses

Polish presidential frontrunner pledges to sign bills on contraception, Silesian and constitutional court

Mar 15, 2025
Notes from Poland

Rafał Trzaskowski, the presidential candidate of Poland’s main ruling party, says that, if he wins the election, the first bills he would want to sign would be to allow prescription-free access to the morning-after pill, recognise Silesian as a regional language, and overhaul the constitutional court.

Those bills have been blocked by current President Andrzej Duda, an ally of the conservative opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party. Trzaskowski says that he also wants to sign “as soon as possible” a bill liberalising the abortion law, though the ruling coalition has not yet managed to pass one.

Continued: https://notesfrompoland.com/2025/03/15/polish-presidential-frontrunner-pledges-to-sign-bills-on-contraception-silesian-and-constitutional-court/

15.03.2025

News

Andrzej Duda

Donald Tusk

emergency contraception

Law and Justice party

Activists Open Abortion Clinic Opposite Polish Parliament

Claudia Ciobanu, Warsaw, BIRN
March 10, 2025

In a challenge to Poland’s government, which has failed to legalise abortion despite its election promises, activists have opened a clinic in the centre of Warsaw where women can receive support when taking abortion pills.

“We want every person coming here to have the feeling they are surrounded by trust and care, that this is a safe place. We have the knowledge, we have the experience, we really can help with abortions,” said Justyna Wydrzynska, one of the founders of a Warsaw clinic that opened on Friday as a place where women can come to perform a medical abortion or consult on other termination options.

Continued: https://balkaninsight.com/2025/03/10/activists-open-abortion-clinic-opposite-polish-parliament/

10.03.2025

Poland abortion clinic

Poland first “abortion clinic” opens amid protest

Mar 9, 2025
Notes from Poland

A facility that reproductive rights activists describe as Poland’s first ever abortion clinic has opened in Warsaw. The launch – held on International Women’s Day – was met with protests by anti-abortion groups.

Critics say that the initiative violates Poland’s strict abortion laws, which allow terminations in only two narrowly restricted circumstances and criminalise those who assist women in obtaining unlawful abortions. However, the group behind the clinic argues that it conforms with all relevant regulations.

Continued: https://notesfrompoland.com/2025/03/09/poland-first-abortion-clinic-opens-amid-protest/

09.03.2025

International Women's Day

Across from parliament, Poland’s first abortion centre opens

Bernard OSSER
Mar 7, 2025

As Poland's first abortion centre opened on Friday the choice of location was nothing short of symbolic: just opposite the parliament that failed to follow through on its pledges to relax the country's stringent abortion laws.

Poland has a near-total ban on abortion but in an act of defiance, the activists decided to put pressure on lawmakers by launching a space near the chamber where women considering terminating their pregnancy can get help to do so.

"This is a historic moment in the 32-year history of democratic Poland, because no one had ever managed to do it before," the centre's coordinator Anna Pieta said, her voice shaking.

Continued: https://www.wfxg.com/news/across-from-parliament-polands-first-abortion-centre-opens/article_8ee7ea64-3b52-53a7-a4ec-ae6aa0f7e749.html

07.03.2025

News

Abortion Dream Team

Abortion Without Borders

‘There’s no other solution’: Polish abortion centre opens in challenge to strict laws

Frustrated by government’s failure to ease rules, an NGO is opening a centre a stone’s throw from parliament in Warsaw

Ashifa Kassam
Fri 7 Mar 2025

They poured on to streets across Poland in their hundreds of thousands, carrying placards reading “The revolution has a uterus” and “My body, my choice”. In late 2023 they helped vote in a prime minister who promised a swift overhaul of the country’s draconian abortion laws.

Now, after more than a year of stalled promises, Polish abortion campaigners are taking matters into their own hands, setting up a pregnancy termination centre on one of the country’s corridors of power.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/mar/07/polish-abortion-centre-opens-strict-laws-warsaw

UN experts urge Poland to acquit abortion rights activist awaiting retrial

Nicole D'Souza | U. Auckland Law School, NZ
March 4, 2025

UN experts on Tuesday urged Poland to acquit Justyna Wydrzyńska, a human rights defender and abortion rights activist previously sentenced to eight months of community service.

Advocating for the protection of human rights defenders such as Wydrzyńska, the experts noted the work of individuals like her “remains one of the few avenues for safe abortion in Poland, where access to services to terminate a pregnancy is virtually non-existent in practice”. The group of UN experts urged Poland “to stop targeting human rights defenders – in particular those who speak out against the country’s restrictive abortion law – and to take positive measures to ensure accessible, safe and legal abortion”. The experts also requested Poland to comply with international obligations and amend legislation to decriminalize abortion.

Continued: https://www.jurist.org/news/2025/03/un-experts-urge-poland-to-acquit-abortion-rights-activist-awaiting-retrial/

04.03.2025

Abortion Dream Team

European Court of Human Rights

Polish activist’s conviction for sending woman abortion pills overturned

Feb 14, 2025
Notes from Poland

Justyna Wydrzyńska, an activist who was convicted two years ago for providing abortion pills to a pregnant woman, has succeeded in having the conviction annulled.

An appeals court found that the presence of the judge who issued the initial verdict – who had been appointed by a judicial body rendered illegitimate due to the previous Law and Justice (PiS) government’s reforms – resulted in the lower court being incorrectly composed when it ruled on the case.

The decision means that the case will now return to that lower court, where Wydrzyńska will face a repeat of the initial trial. Under Poland’s strict abortion laws, helping someone obtain an abortion is punishable by up to three years in prison.

Continued: https://notesfrompoland.com/2025/02/14/polish-activists-conviction-for-sending-woman-abortion-pills-overturned/

14.02.2025

Polish court orders retrial in hot-button abortion case

Warsaw (AFP) – A Polish court on Thursday ordered a retrial in the case of an activist found guilty of aiding a woman to terminate her pregnancy, in a symbolic step for Poland's abortion rights movement.

Feb 13, 2025

Justyna Wydrzynska was sentenced to community service in 2023 in the first such case concerning an activist in the EU country, which has a near-total abortion ban and outlaws abortion assistance.

…But an appeals court on Thursday overturned "the contested judgment in its entirety", judge Rafal Kaniok said, citing doubts over the independence of the presiding judge who delivered the sentence.

Continued: https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20250213-polish-court-orders-retrial-in-hot-button-abortion-case

13.02.2025

News

Abortion Dream Team

Abortion Without Borders

Amnesty International Poland

Polish appeals court to rule next month in abortion case which activists say could set a precedent

By The Associated Press
Jan 30, 2025

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — An appeals court in Poland said Thursday that it would rule next month in the case of a women’s rights activist convicted in 2023 of providing another woman with abortion pills.

The three-judge panel concluded that the case was complicated and adjourned the verdict until Feb. 13.

The activist, Justyna Wydrzynska, was convicted in March 2023 and sentenced to eight months of community service for having sent pills to a woman seeking abortion. Helping a woman have an abortion is illegal in Poland and can result in up to three years in prison

Continued; https://halifax.citynews.ca/2025/01/30/polish-appeals-court-to-rule-next-month-in-abortion-case-which-activists-say-could-set-a-precedent/

30.01.2025