March 14, 2023
by Adam Easton, BBC News, Warsaw
A Polish woman has been sentenced to eight months of community service for illegally helping another woman to have an abortion.
Abortion has been almost completely banned in Poland and Justyna Wydrzynska is thought to be the first activist to be tried for aiding a pregnant woman.
A colorful crowd of doctors, researchers and women’s activists convened in the Latvian capital to explore ways to use pills to circumvent anti-abortion laws.
By EMILY SCHULTHEIS
11/26/2022
RIGA, Latvia — For two sunny, crisp autumn days in mid-September, Riga’s Stradiņš University felt like the epicenter of a self-styled global civil rights movement: to give every person, in every culture or country, regardless of laws, access to abortion pills.
In the hallways, women pored over posters showing the latest research on the effectiveness of abortion pills and other developments in abortion and contraception care. Representatives from pharmaceutical companies enthusiastically pitched their medications and products to doctors sipping coffee and tea during a break between panels. There were graphic novels about an at-home medical abortion and T-shirts printed with women’s self-stated reasons for ending a pregnancy; there were slogans printed on T-shirts like “Make Abortion Legal Again” and a video promoting abortion rights to the tune of Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance.”
Continued: https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/11/26/global-abortion-rights-movement-latvia-00069224
A network of activists is helping women terminate pregnancies in countries where the procedure is banned.
BY CARLO MARTUSCELLI, EMILY SCHULTHEIS, MANDOLINE RUTKOWSKI AND JAKUB KORUS
OCTOBER 29, 2022
RIGA — If you want to get an abortion in Poland, Kinga Jelinska is happy to help. Legally terminating your pregnancy is almost impossible in the Eastern European country. Abortion is only allowed in the case of rape or incest, or when it threatens the life of the woman.
That’s where Jelinska comes in. She’s the co-founder and executive director of Women Help Women, an Amsterdam-based nonprofit that helps provide women with the pills needed for an at-home medical abortion. The service Jelinska’s group provides falls into a legal grey zone; self-induced abortion is illegal in a number of countries, but in Poland, it’s not explicitly banned.
Continued: https://www.politico.eu/article/roe-v-wade-europe-abortion-pill-illegal-underground-network/
Justyna Wydrzyńska, who gave a woman experiencing domestic violence miscarriage-inducing pills, could be jailed for three years
Weronika Strzyżyńska
Mon 28 Mar 2022
The first pro-choice activist to be charged in Poland for breaking the country’s strict abortion law by providing miscarriage-inducing tablets to a pregnant woman is due to face trial next week.
Justyna Wydrzyńska, from the Polish group Aborcyjny Dream Team (ADT), is charged with illegally aiding an abortion and faces up to three years in prison if she is found guilty.
March 28, 2022
The hearing will take place at 9.30 AM on April 8 in the Warsaw Praga Południe District Court. This is the first case in Europe of an activist being charged with aiding an abortion by providing pills. Justyna, a 47-year-old from a small town in the central Poland, faces 3 years in prison. The Abortion Dream Team is launching a campaign #IamJustyna (#jakJustyna) and confirms that people in Poland will still receive abortion support.
In 2020, at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Justyna gave her own abortion pills to “Anna”(name changed), a woman with an unwanted pregnancy. At the time, Anna was in a relationship with a man who had prevented her from travelling to an abortion clinic abroad, and was abusive and controlling. When Anna returned home with the pills she was met by the police; her husband had set a trap for her and called them.
Photos and text: https://jakjustyna.aborcyjnydreamteam.pl/press-info/
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