Polish government accused of murder after pregnant woman carrying dead foetus dies

Women’s rights activists took to the streets to protest against the country’s draconian abortion laws

By Matthew Day and Anne Gulland
27 January 2022

Poland’s government is guilty of murder, campaigners said on Thursday following the death of a woman forced to carry a dead foetus in her womb for over a week because of draconian new abortion laws.

The 37-year-old woman, who was carrying twins and was in her first three months of pregnancy, lost one foetus in mid-December but was refused an abortion, according to her family, despite the threat to her health and life. Continued: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/01/27/polish-government-accused-murder-pregnant-woman-carrying-dead/

Organizations Join Council of Europe’s Urgent Call for Poland to Ensure Access to Lawful Abortion Care and Services

March 16, 2021
Center for Reproductive Rights

On 11 March 2021, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe issued a resolution calling on Poland to adopt, without further delay, long overdue clear and effective procedures for women’s access to lawful abortion care and information.

The resolution expresses serious concerns about Poland’s longstanding failure to comply with the European Court of Human Rights’ judgments in the cases of Tysiąc v. Poland, R.R. v. Poland and P. and S. v. Poland. In these judgments, the Court found a number of human rights violations, citing the multiple obstacles and deplorable treatment that the applicants faced in seeking access to lawful abortion care in Poland. The judgments became final in 2007, 2011, and 2013, respectively. Ample time has passed since the first of these landmark judgments, and yet Poland has repeatedly failed to take effective measures to meet these judgments.

Continued: http://reproductiverights.org/press-room/organizations-join-council-europes-urgent-call-poland-ensure-access-lawful-abortion-care

Europe Update: Abortion Rights at Risk in Poland and Slovakia

Center for Reproductive Rights
11.06.2020

Recent developments in Poland and Slovakia demonstrate the ongoing struggle to defend abortion rights against coordinated and systemic attacks on sexual and reproductive rights across the world.

Poland 
Poland has one of the most restrictive abortion laws in Europe and access to abortion in the country is extremely limited—and often practically impossible. Poland is one of only two countries in the European Union that does not allow abortion on request or on broad social grounds. A recent ruling by the country’s Constitutional Tribunal will make abortion care even more difficult to access.

Continued: https://reproductiverights.org/story/europe-update-abortion-rights-risk-poland-and-slovakia

Slovakian woman breaks silence on abortion as key vote nears

By Sophie Davies
OCTOBER 19, 2020

(Thomson Reuters Foundation) - When Ivana Gaziova had an abortion as a teenager, she didn’t want to talk about it to anyone apart from her closest cousin. Six years on, a push to tighten Slovakia’s abortion law impelled her to speak out.

Gaziova, a waitress from Bratislava, has gone public with her own story to campaign against the government-led proposal, which critics see as part of a trend towards more socially conservative policies in central Europe.

Continued: https://www.reuters.com/article/slovakia-women-abortion/feature-slovakian-woman-breaks-silence-on-abortion-as-key-vote-nears-idUSL8N2H65AV