The Abortion Ban That Didn’t End Abortion in Poland

Five years after Poland's top court gutted abortion rights, access to legal procedures has quietly expanded – but only for women who learned to work within a system designed to say ‘no’.

Ada Petriczko
February 4, 2026

Edyta was 29 weeks pregnant when the MRI results came back. She opened the report in a hospital corridor in Warsaw. Missing temporal bone. Disrupted neuronal migration. Abnormalities in the corpus callosum.

“I just stood there. I couldn’t move,” she tells BIRN. “The entire pregnancy everyone kept saying nothing was wrong – and then suddenly my baby's brain wasn’t developing normally.”

Continued: https://balkaninsight.com/2026/02/04/polands-precarious-post-abortion-ban-compromise-leaves-women-at-mercy-of-the-system/

Poland: End Investigation into Conduct of Doctor who Provided a Lawful Late-Term Abortion

August 28, 2025
Amnesty International

Polish authorities must end the investigation into the conduct of a doctor who provided a lawful late-term abortion and take measures to ensure her safety following physical and online attacks against her, said Amnesty International in a public statement published today.

Dr Gizela Jagielska faces possible prosecution and imprisonment of up to eight years, for lawfully providing an abortion to a woman in a hospital in Oleśnica in Southern Poland in October 2024, on the grounds that the pregnancy posed a threat to her health.

“Abortion is an integral part of comprehensive sexual and reproductive health services and as essential healthcare, it should not be treated as a crime,” said Monica Costa Riba, Amnesty International’s Senior Campaigner on Women’s Rights.

Continued; https://www.amnestyusa.org/press-releases/poland-end-investigation-into-conduct-of-doctor-who-provided-a-lawful-late-term-abortion/

28.08.2025

Commentary

Amnesty International

Dr Gizela Jagielska

Grzegorz Braun

Monica Costa Riba

osteogenesis imperfecta

‘He kept saying I’m a murderer’: Polish doctor targeted for legal abortion

April 30, 2025
Will Vernon, BBC News in Warsaw

A leading Polish doctor has told the BBC she fears for her patients' safety after being targeted by anti-abortion activists.

Gizela Jagielska says she has received thousands of death threats in relation to her work administering legal abortions in a hospital in the town of Olesnica in southwestern Poland. The facility specialises in complicated pregnancies.

On 17 April, a group of activists led by radical, far-right MEP Grzegorz Braun came to the hospital, prevented Dr Jagielska from leaving her office and attempted to carry out a citizen's arrest.

Continued: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgkg4y5jpjpo

30.04.2025

Polish presidential candidate storms hospital protesting the ‘Anita’ abortion dispute

Paulina Mozolewska, Euractiv
Apr 17, 2025

A Polish gynaecologist was barricaded in an office for over 50 minutes as police intervened in an escalating confrontation with protestors.

Grzegorz Braun, a Konfederacja MEP and Polish presidential candidate, stormed a hospital in Oleśnica on Wednesday, 16 April, accompanied by supporters. Braun attempted a so-called 'citizen's arrest' of Dr Gizela Jagielska, a gynaecologist who performs legal abortions.

Braun accused her of murder and demanded her detention.

Continued: https://www.euractiv.com/section/health-consumers/news/polish-presidential-candidate-storms-hospital-protesting-the-anita-abortion-dispute/