Polish women travel abroad for abortions ahead of law change

Support services in Poland and abroad say numbers increasing even before legislation is tightened

Shaun Walker and Anna Koslerova in Prague
Sun 13 Dec 2020

Polish women are increasingly being forced to travel abroad to seek abortions even though a court ruling to tighten the country’s already strict laws has not yet coming into force, activists have said.

The constitutional court ruled in October
that abortion was illegal even in cases where there were severe foetal
abnormalities. Around 1,000 abortions a year – almost all of the country’s
legal abortion procedures – are carried out for this reason.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/dec/13/polish-women-travel-abroad-for-abortions-ahead-of-new-law

Abortion Without Borders helps more than 5,000 people in Poland in first year

Celebrates with billboards advertising their service in Warsaw

Thursday, December 10, 2020, Warsaw
Aborcja Bez Granic / Abortion Without Borders

Abortion Without Borders helps more than 5,000 people in Poland in first year; celebrates with billboards advertising their service in Warsaw.

The Abortion Without Borders initiative has helped more than 5,000 people in Poland since its launch one year ago. The group has provided pregnancy options counselling, information about safe abortion with pills in Poland, and funding and practical support for abortion outside Poland. To celebrate, the group has engaged billboards in Warsaw advertising their organisation and will hold a press conference in Warsaw at 11 am local time. In their first year, Abortion Without Borders has:

Continued: https://womenhelp.org/en/page/1265/abortion-without-borders-helps-more-than-5-000-people-in-poland-in

In Europe and the US, abortion rights are under renewed threat

by Emma Reynolds, CNN
Sun November 1, 2020

(CNN)The Abortion Dream Team usually receives about 400 calls a month, from women seeking advice and information. Last week, the Polish advocacy group had 700 in the space of three days, according to team member Justyna Wydrzynska.

Some came from women who had just arrived at hospital to have abortions because of fetal defects -- only to be told to go home after Poland's highest court on October 22 imposed a near-total ban on abortion.

Continued: https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/01/europe/abortion-rights-poland-us-slovakia-intl/index.html

01.11.2020

anti-choice restrictions

Center for Reproductive Rights

Center of International Law

fetal defects

Geneva Consensus Declaration

Marie Stopes International

Poland Constitutional Tribunal

Poland Federation for Women and Family Planning

Roe v. Wade

Sarah Shaw

severe fetal abnormalities

As Poland defies ‘European values,’ women resist on streets and online

As Poland defies 'European values,' women resist on streets and online

By Eliza Mackintosh, CNN
Wed April 22, 2020

(CNN)Marta Gorczynska got in her car and started driving.

She didn't have a destination as she passed through Warsaw's mostly deserted streets, but, just before noon last Tuesday, she got a text with directions: go to Rondo Dmowskiego.

Gorczynska, a human rights lawyer, was among a throng of protesters that used their vehicles to defy Poland's lockdown and block the main roundabout in the capital, honking their horns and shouting slogans against a citizen's bill to tighten what are already some of the most restrictive abortion laws anywhere in Europe.

Continued: https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/22/europe/poland-protest-abortion-lockdown-intl/index.html

Abortion activists in Poland fret as coronavirus curbs access

Abortion activists in Poland fret as coronavirus curbs access

Alicja Ptak, Reuters
March 21, 2020

WARSAW — Natalia Broniarczyk, an activist with a charity that assists Polish women who want to terminate pregnancies, says its hot line began ringing non-stop after the government announced border closures to stem the coronavirus outbreak last week.

Many callers were worried about their shipments of abortion pills, which are illegal in Poland, and others feared they would not be able to reach clinics abroad in time to have the procedure, which is unavailable in Poland in most cases.

Continued: https://nationalpost.com/pmn/health-pmn/abortion-activists-in-poland-fret-as-coronavirus-curbs-access

Pro-choice activists launch abortion initiative in Poland

Pro-choice activists launch abortion initiative in Poland
Abortion Without Borders to offer women advice and funds to seek treatment abroad

Shaun Walker, Central and eastern Europe correspondent
Tue 10 Dec 2019

An international group of pro-choice campaigners will launch an initiative in Poland this week to provide advice and funding for women to travel abroad to have abortions.

Poland has some of Europe’s most restrictive abortion laws, and proposals backed by the rightwing government to introduce a total ban on abortions in 2016 were scrapped only after large-scale protests.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/dec/10/pro-choice-activists-launch-abortion-initiative-in-poland

Poland – How to Make Abortion Great Again

How to Make Abortion Great Again

Poland has one of the most restrictive abortion laws in the European Union, and in practice, it's all but banned. But four women, nicknamed the "Abortion Dream Team," are pushing back, holding workshops around the country teaching women how to obtain and self-manage a medical abortion. With Roe v. Wade at risk of being overturned in the U.S., is their story a cautionary tale, or a possible roadmap for American women?

By Anna Louie Sussman
Nov 4, 2019

On a rainy day in May, in the Polish coastal city of Gdańsk, in a high-ceilinged room on the second floor of an unremarkable building, 16 women and five men sat in mismatched office chairs around a long table, waiting to learn how to administer a medical abortion. Before the workshop began in earnest, one of the speakers, Karolina Więckiewicz, turned to a bald, bearded man on her left, whose papers spread out in front of him suggested he might be from a prosecutor’s office, and asked him to stop recording.

Continued: https://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/features/a28690537/abortion-dream-team-poland/

POLAND – Polish abortion rights advocates reported to the police, but no charges were brought (yet)

POLAND – Polish abortion rights advocates reported to the police, but no charges were brought (yet)

by International Campaign for Women's Right to Safe Abortion
June 8, 2018

Dear Abortion Friends,

Some time ago we, the Abortion Dream Team (an informal group working on destigmatisation of abortion) and Kobiety w Sieci (community of women with abortion experience who run the online forum and support each other), found out that two anti-choice organizations had filed reports with the police accusing us of committing two kinds of crimes and asking them to press charges against us for our activities.

One supposed crime they accused us of was the Abortion Dream Team’s post on Facebook, which gives information on how to prepare oneself for a home abortion. We have not yet heard from the law enforcement authorities about that, but we do expect something to happen.

The second one was about the online forum and “illegal helping” of women to have an abortion that is punishable under Polish law. As a result of that, one of us, Justyna Wydrzynska, who is the online forum’s administrator, was called in for an interview on 7 June. At the end of the interview, no charges were brought against her, and we are under the impression that none will be. But it is probably not the end, as there can be more attempts.

We know that this is a backlash. The forum has been operating for 12 years. For a long time, it was done quietly. Thousands of women got support they needed. Recently, it became more visible. Women with abortion experience who also support others started talking about it openly and proudly. The anti-choice people could not stand it.

We won’t ever agree that giving information and advice on abortion access – how and where to order pills, how to take them, what to do to make abortion more comfortable and safe – and having support during this experience is a crime of “illegally helping” someone to have an abortion. We will never agree to such an interpretation. And we won’t stop doing what we do even if they call us criminals and press charges against us. We are doing good for women, and we will be there for each other always.

We receive a lot of support and solidarity from our allies in Poland. Today one friend initiated a Facebook action where people write: “I also give information about abortion. You won’t hear about all of us. You can’t lock all of us up. Today, we have all had the experience of abortion; today, we all are abortion supporters”. We are using the hashtag #jatezmowieoaborcji in Polish. In English it is: #IAlsoInformAboutAbortion.

If you would like to do the same, to declare that you are also people who tell others about abortion possibilities, that you also help others to go through abortion in safety and comfort, you can also use this hashtag. You can report what we have written here and also whatever you want. It would be great if you could use one of the hashtags: #jatezmowieoaborcji in Polish; #IAlsoInformAboutAbortion in English.

We would truly appreciate it. Solidarity is our greatest strength.

Karolina, Natalia, Justyna

SOURCE: E-mail, 7 June 2018
---------------------------------
From: http://www.safeabortionwomensright.org/poland-polish-abortion-rights-advocates-reported-to-the-police-but-no-charges-were-brought-yet/

Polish Women Protest Proposed Abortion Ban (Again)

By MARC SANTORA and JOANNA BERENDT
MARCH 23, 2018

WARSAW — To Magda, giving birth would have meant inflicting a slow death. Her unborn child had a rare genetic syndrome that causes severe, fatal birth defects.

“I would feed it, hug it, love it, get attached to it, and then, when it would be 3 or 4 months old, it would suffocate while in my arms,” she recalled, explaining her decision a decade ago to have an abortion. “It would scar me for life. I don’t know if I would be capable of giving birth to another child and not look at it as if it were the one that had died in my arms.”

Continued: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/23/world/europe/poland-abortion-women-protest.html