‘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

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

Lessons from Poland, the other developed country curtailing abortion rights

By Gordon F. Sander
June 12, 2022

Last month, when Americans were stunned to learn of a draft Supreme Court opinion to overturn Roe v. Wade, one group of people was less surprised: Polish abortion rights advocates.

“What happened with the Supreme Court is of course shocking but not a surprise to us,” said Kinga Jelinska, a member of the Polish abortion rights group Abortion Dream Team. She sees “a lot of parallels between what is happening in the U.S.” and in Poland.

Continued: https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2022/06/12/poland-abortion-rights-history/

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

Two Polish women died after being refused timely abortions. Many Poles are outraged — and protesting.

Antiabortion organizations are powerful in Poland, but
abortion rights support is growing

By Courtney Blackington, Washington Post
Feb 18, 2022

Last month, the death of a Polish woman known as “Agnieszka T.” inflamed public debate about Poland’s abortion law. She died a month after doctors delayed aborting twin fetuses, which had separately died in utero over the course of a week. Her family blames Poland’s current abortion law for her death. Another woman, Izabela, died under similar circumstances last September. Their deaths may be spurring protests in support of abortion access. In my research, I have spoken to activists to understand what drives them to protest.

Continued: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/02/18/poland-abortion-protest/

Poland: “Not One More”. One year after the illegitimate abortion ban

Feb 9, 2022

NOT ONE MORE
One year after the illegitimate ruling of the Constitutional Tribunal
Federa will not leave any woman alone

One year has passed since the most brutal attack on women’s rights in modern Polish history. A year of pain, terror, and suffering for thousands of women.

From the very announcement of the ruling of the flawed Constitutional Tribunal the Federation for Women and Family Planning has warned that the ban on abortion would result in the deaths of patients and, unfortunately, our predictions came true.

Continued: https://en.federa.org.pl/anniversary-of-the-ct-abortion-ban/

Family blames pregnant woman’s death on Poland’s anti-abortion law

The Associated Press
Monday, January 31, 2022

WARSAW, POLAND -- Prosecutors in southern Poland are probing the death of a 37-year-old woman in a hospital who had been pregnant with twins, a situation in which her family and women's rights groups blame Poland's strict anti-abortion law, alleging it fatally delayed doctors' decision to terminate the pregnancy.

Prosecutors in Katowice said Monday they were awaiting the results of three autopsies to determine the cause of the Jan. 25 death of the woman, identified only as Agnieszka T., and the late December deaths of her two fetuses, after which the pregnancy was terminated.

Continued: https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/family-blames-pregnant-woman-s-death-on-poland-s-anti-abortion-law-1.5761561

31.01.2022

Featured

News

Agnieszka T

All-Poland Women's Strike

Protests flare across Poland after death of young mother denied an abortion

Family of Agnieszka T say they want to ‘save other women in Poland from a similar fate’, as case met with anger over restrictive termination laws

Weronika Strzyżyńska
Fri 28 Jan 2022

Protests are under way across Poland after the death of a 37-year-old woman this week who was refused an abortion, a year since the country introduced one of the most restrictive abortion laws in Europe.

On the streets of Warsaw on Tuesday night, protesters laid wreaths and lanterns in memory of Agnieszka T, who died earlier that day. She was pregnant with twins when one of the foetus’ heartbeat stopped and doctors refused to carry out an abortion. In a statement, her family accused the government of having “blood on its hands”. Further protests are planned in Częstochowa, the city in southern Poland where the mother-of-three was from.

Continued : https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2022/jan/27/protests-flare-across-poland-after-death-of-young-mother-denied-an-abortion

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/

Polish state has ‘blood on its hands’ after death of woman refused an abortion

Family says young mother’s health deteriorated rapidly after the twins she was carrying died a week apart in the womb

Weronika Strzyżyńska
Wed 26 Jan 2022

The family of a Polish woman who died on Tuesday after doctors refused to perform an abortion when the foetus’s heart stopped beating have accused the government of having “blood on their hands”.

The woman, identified only as Agnieszka T, was said to have been in the first trimester of a twin pregnancy when she was admitted to the Blessed Virgin Mary hospital in Częstochowa on 21 December. Her death comes a year after Poland introduced one of the most restrictive abortion laws in Europe.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2022/jan/26/poland-death-of-woman-refused-abortion