Poland abortion ban victim’s family says ‘nobody cared about her life’

By Isabel da Silva
Updated: 18/11/2022

The family of a Polish woman that died due to Poland's restrictive rules on abortion have spoken out about her ordeal.

Izabela Sajbor, 30, died of septic shock last year when she was 22 weeks pregnant.

Thousands took to the streets to protest the victim of the country's near-total abortion ban, which was approved in October 2020.

Continued: https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2022/11/17/nobody-cared-about-her-life-family-of-polish-abortion-ban-victim-speak-out

By Isabel da Silva
Updated: 18/11/2022

The family of a Polish woman that died due to Poland's restrictive rules on abortion have spoken out about her ordeal.

Izabela Sajbor, 30, died of septic shock last year when she was 22 weeks pregnant.

Thousands took to the streets to protest the victim of the country's near-total abortion ban, which was approved in October 2020.

Continued: https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2022/11/17/nobody-cared-about-her-life-family-of-polish-abortion-ban-victim-speak-out

Will Polish police repeat crackdown on anti-abortion protests two years on?

OPINION: The EU should insist that Poland uphold the right to sexual and reproductive health care|

Letta Tayler
21 October 2022

It’s two years since hundreds of thousands of people – mostly women – joined protests in Poland against a near-total ban on legal abortion. Police used violence to disperse rallies and detained thousands of protesters.

On Monday, protesters in Warsaw, at the Constitutional Tribunal, plan to mark the second anniversary of the tribunal’s ruling with another rally, outside the Constitutional Tribunal, which approved the near-total ban. They say they will repeat their demands on the government to decriminalise terminations and to ensure access to safe and legal abortion for all.

Continued: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/5050/poland-abortion-law-ban-protests-second-anniversary-police/

‘No matter the law, no matter the stigma, no matter the cost.’ This European network helps people access abortions

Story, photographs by Kara Fox
CNN Video by Ladan Anoushfar and Louis Leeson, CNN
Wed September 28, 2022

It’s early evening in an affluent neighborhood in the Dutch city of Haarlem and bed and breakfast owners Arnoud and Marika are waiting for their next guest to arrive. They’ve prepared their single room for her, a brightly colored space with massive windows overlooking a leafy drive.

The traveller is a woman from France. She’s only staying one night, but her hosts want her to feel at home because she’s not here on vacation. She’s come to have a second-trimester abortion.

Continued: https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/28/europe/europe-abortion-travel-as-equals-intl-cmd

For Churches, Abortion Politics Is a Double-Edged Sword

Ireland and Poland went in entirely opposite directions on abortion. Why?

By Amanda Taub
Sept. 21, 2022

For the past several years, as I have struggled to put the escalating tumult of global abortion politics into some sort of order inside my own mind, I have returned over and over to two events.

They happened in different countries, in different years. They produced opposite outcomes. And yet I could not shake the feeling that looking at them together might help me understand something important about the way the world works.

Continued: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/21/world/europe/abortion-ireland-poland.html

Ukrainian refugees reignite abortion debate in Poland

Tuesday, 19 April 2022
By Liv Klingert

The controversial debate on abortion in Poland has been reignited following the arrival of Ukrainian women refugees who have been victims of sexual violence by Russian soldiers in Ukraine.

Under current restrictive abortion laws, it is uncertain whether women who become pregnant through rape and seek refuge in Poland can still have legal and safe abortions there, De Standaard reported.

Continued: https://www.brusselstimes.com/belgium/218090/ukrainian-refugees-ignite-abortion-debate-in-poland

Activist faces trial in Poland for aiding abortion

Justyna Wydrzyńska faces a three-year prison term for providing abortion-inducing tablets to a pregnant woman.

By Anna Koslerova, Al Jazeera
Published On 4 Apr 2022

Justyna Wydrzyńska, 47-year-old mother of three, who has been helping women access abortion for more than 15 years, is set to face trial in Poland this week for violating the country’s strict abortion law.

She could be imprisoned for a maximum of three years if found guilty of providing abortion-inducing tablets to a pregnant woman.

Continued: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/4/4/pro-choice-activist-faces-trial-in-poland-for-aiding-abortion

Poland – Abortion Dream Team Activist Faces Charges For Helping In Abortion. In the background, a story of domestic violence unfolds.

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/

28.03.2022

#IAmJustyna

#jakJustyna

Abortion Dream Team

Abortion Without Borders

Justyna Wydrzynska

Kinga Jelinska

Poland Constitutional Tribunal

Sabrina Mana-Walasek

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/

Abortion as a Human Right: The Fight for Reproductive Rights in Argentina and Poland

07.FEB.2022
Jaya Nayar

On September 22, 2021, a 30-year-old Polish woman named Izabela died of septic shock at the hospital after her unborn baby’s heart stopped beating. Her death initiated waves of protests across Poland and was seen as the direct consequence of a near total ban on abortion passed in 2020, which outlawed the termination of pregnancies even in the case of fetal defects. Under this new law, unlawful abortion could lead to up to eight years in prison. Terrified of the law and of its potential consequences, Izabela’s doctors waited too long to terminate the pregnancy despite knowing the potential risks for the mother—resulting in her death.

The case of Poland sheds light on a puzzling contemporary phenomenon. The right to abortion has recently been under attack in several countries where it was previously legalized in the late 20th century. In September 2021, the US Supreme Court refused to block legislation in Texas that would ban terminations of pregnancy after six weeks, which is after many women are even aware that they are pregnant. In Turkey, where abortion has been legal since 1983, President Erdogan’s conservative position on abortion is making it increasingly difficult for women to access abortions in public hospitals.

Continued: https://hir.harvard.edu/abortion-as-a-human-right-the-fight-for-reproductive-rights-in-argentina-and-poland/