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/

‘Sculpting within the law’: Where does Poland stand on abortion?

Ada Petriczko
May 12, 2025

WARSAW - Two years after Donald Tusk became Poland's prime minister and promised to reform strict abortion rules, many of the women who supported him are disillusioned and say a May 18 presidential vote is unlikely to bring the change they were promised.

This is despite the fact that a liberal candidate could replace conservative President Andrzej Duda, who has long opposed easing some of Europe's strictest abortion laws.

"I'm still shocked that they reached for our votes when they needed them, and then completely discarded us," said activist Anna Pięta, who helped create a viral campaign that urged women to vote in 2023.

Continued: https://www.context.news/money-power-people/polish-presidential-vote-unlikely-to-resolve-abortion-impasse

In Warsaw, a feminist clinic lets women speak freely about abortion

Despite campaign promises, the liberal coalition in power has not loosened Poland's strict abortion laws. However, progress is emerging from civil society: An organization has opened a one-of-a-kind health center, where gynecologists and psychologists support women in their decisions, without judgment.

By Hélène Bienvenu, Le Monde
Jan 3, 2024

Tucked away on one of Warsaw's busiest streets, a discreet neon sign marks the entrance: Federa Health Center. Ringing the intercom grants access to this private clinic entirely dedicated to women's health. Inside, one might mistake it for a cozy café with its powder-colored walls and plush armchairs, if not for the abundance of informative brochures about HIV and emergency contraception. Condoms are prominently displayed on tables in the large first-floor room, reserved for sex education and self-defense workshops.

Continued: https://www.lemonde.fr/en/m-le-mag/article/2025/01/03/in-warsaw-the-feminist-clinic-where-to-speak-freely-about-abortion_6736663_117.html

03.01.2025

Polish Foundation for Women and Family Planning

Warsaw feminist clinic

‘So unjust’: Polish lawyers offer legal aid amid abortion help ban

Warsaw (AFP) – As Polish lawmakers debated easing stringent abortion laws, Warsaw-based lawyer Jerzy Podgorski was in court defending a man from the remote town of Pinczow charged with aiding his partner's abortion.

23/07/2024

Despite recent efforts to loosen the policy, Poland still has one of Europe's most restrictive rules on terminating pregnancies, which even outlaw abortion assistance and punish it by up to three years in jail.

The ruling alliance, split on the issue, was unable to garner enough support this month to pass a bill that would decriminalise the act.

Continued: https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20240723-so-unjust-polish-lawyers-offer-legal-aid-amid-abortion-help-ban

23.07.2024

News

FEDERA

helping women with abortion

prosecuting people for helping with abortion

‘Try harder!’: Poland’s women demand Tusk act over abortion promises

Prime minister pledged to liberalise country’s strict laws within 100 days of taking office – but time is ticking away

Ashifa Kassam
Tue 6 Feb 2024

Wielding placards that read “The revolution has a uterus” and “My body, my choice,” they poured on to the streets of Poland, defying coronavirus restrictions and sub-zero temperatures to take part in the country’s largest protests since the fall of communism.

Three years on, the battle against Poland’s draconian abortion measures has moved from the streets to the country’s legislature, in what campaigners describe as a crucial test of the country’s new government.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/feb/06/poland-women-donald-tusk-abortion-promises

06.02.2024

Poland: Abortion Witch Hunt Targets Women, Doctors

Criminalization, Pursuit of Alleged Offenders Violates Rights

September 14, 2023
Human Rights Watch

(London) – Poland’s government is targeting people for alleged abortion-related activities, intensifying a climate of fear that heightens risks for women and girls, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch released a video highlighting how the government’s dubious use of its powers to chase down alleged abortion-related activity threatens people’s rights to privacy, autonomy, and health, amongst others.

Since a near-ban on legal abortion in 2020, Polish officials have increasingly opened investigations on questionable legal grounds against women and girls seeking medical care for miscarriages or after legal medication abortions, as well as against doctors. Polish law does not criminalize having an abortion but rather anyone who provides or assists someone in having an abortion outside of highly restricted grounds. The government is apparently attempting to find a basis for prosecuting family members, friends, and healthcare providers for illegally providing or assisting abortions.

Continued: https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/09/14/poland-abortion-witch-hunt-targets-women-doctors

Police at the hospital: Abortion battle heats up in Poland

The case of a humiliating police operation in response to a woman who’d taken an abortion pill has intensified debate over whether Poland’s abortion laws have gone too far.

Jacek Lepiarz
July 23, 2023

The leader of Poland's ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, likes to surround himself with women at campaign events. He courts them in the old Polish manner with a kiss on the hand, but such gestures belie the fact that his right-wing nationalist party is actually at war with the country's women.

An ever closer alliance between the Polish government and the Catholic Church has led to a radical tightening of abortion laws in recent years. In 2020, the PiS-controlled Constitutional Court removed the risk of serious fetal malformation as a condition allowing for legal abortion, creating a climate of fear and mistrust among doctors and women.

Continued: https://www.dw.com/en/police-at-the-hospital-abortion-battle-heats-up-in-poland/a-66319325

Police intervention against woman in hospital after taking abortion pills triggers outcry in Poland

JUL 19, 2023
Notes from Poland

Police intervention against a woman hospitalised after taking abortion pills has caused an outcry in Poland. Opposition politicians have condemned the incident – parts of which were caught on film – and called for the dismissal of the chief of police.

Officers are said to have surrounded the woman, who was reportedly ordered to undress, do squats and cough even though she was still bleeding. They also seized the woman’s computer and phone.

Continued: https://notesfrompoland.com/2023/07/19/police-intervention-against-woman-in-hospital-after-taking-abortion-pills-triggers-outcry-in-poland/

“Undress, Squat, Cough” — Police In Poland Ramp Up The Abortion Crackdown

Poland, known for having some of Europe’s most restrictive abortion laws, only allows the procedure in cases of rape or incest, or when the life of the mother is at risk. But even when abortions are performed legally, women can be met with criminal accusations from the police.

Dominika Wantuch
July 19, 2023

KRAKOW — Poland's conservative government has made restricting abortion access a guiding pillar since returning to power in 2015. Now that appears to include orders to police to detain women seeking access to terminate a pregnancy in the case of health risks, one of the few exceptions to the strict national abortion ban.

One Polish woman, identified as "Joanna" told police this week that police detained her, saying she had been pressured into having an abortion. She had purchased abortion pills on her own volition after health problems, and had decided to take them, which is not punishable in Poland.

Continued: https://worldcrunch.com/culture-society/poland-abortion-police-crackdown

19.07.2023

News

Abortion Dream Team

Dorota death

European Court of Human Rights

Foundation of Women’s Affairs and Family Planning

Lawyer unfazed by Poland abortion rights case defeat at ECHR

Polish women challenging Warsaw's abortion laws at the European Court of Human Rights had their cases dismissed, but many more are still to come.

Ella Joyner in Brussels
Jun 8, 2023

A Polish lawyer who oversaw the case of eight women challenging their country’s abortion laws at the European Court of Human Rights told DW she was undeterred after their complaints were deemed inadmissible on Thursday.

"We were quite aware that the court might not agree with us at this point," Kamila Ferenc, a lawyer and vice-president of the Polish Foundation for Women and Family Planning (FEDERA), told DW on the phone.

Continued: https://www.dw.com/en/lawyer-unfazed-by-poland-abortion-rights-case-defeat-at-echr/a-65862834