Thursday

21st Sep 2023

Opinion

Poland's year of fear - who will die next in abortion crackdown?

  • A pro-choice demonstration in Poland, October 2020. Plans are now afoot to require doctors to report all pregnancies and miscarriages to a central registry - which could lead to worrisome inquiries in cases in which pregnancies don't end in childbirth (Photo: Spacerowiczka)
Listen to article

Every day, the calls and emails flood in with desperate requests for help.

Since the Constitutional Tribunal decision leading to a law all but eliminating legal abortion in Poland – which came into force one year ago – the number of women and girls contacting the Federation for Women and Family Planning (Federa) has increased threefold.

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Become an expert on Europe

Get instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

They ask for help figuring out where they can go to terminate a pregnancy, or where to turn when doctors have denied them an abortion.

Some are afraid that if they seek an abortion, they will come under legal scrutiny. Others are desperate for contraception, and say even the possibility of pregnancy creates anxiety – what if they need an abortion they can't get? Day in and day out, we field calls from women and girls who feel frightened and alone.

They are right to be afraid.

In September, Izabela, 30, died of septic shock in a southern Poland hospital when doctors would not terminate her pregnancy even though it was no longer viable and she was at risk of infection due to insufficient amniotic fluid.

Text messages she sent from the hospital, later shared publicly by her family, paint a picture of a woman aware she was becoming dangerously ill but powerless against doctors who seemed most concerned about potential legal risks of performing an abortion, even though the law permits abortion when there is a threat to the life or health of the pregnant person.

With every call or e-mail we answer, we worry that the woman or girl on the other end could be next.

Circumstances in Poland today make more such unnecessary deaths likely, if not inevitable. We regularly hear about worrying practices from women with similar lack of amniotic fluid who fear doctors' treatment puts them at risk.

Amidst public outrage, the health ministry clarified that a pregnancy can be terminated "immediately" when there is a threat to a woman's life or health. But fear and uncertainty continue to inhibit medical personnel from providing abortion care, which is part of the comprehensive reproductive health care that is a human right.

In September, medical staff at a Bialystok hospital denied a 26-year-old woman an abortion despite certificates from two psychiatrists attesting to her mental distress after diagnosis of a fatal fetal condition.

The hospital issued a statement linking their refusal of abortion care to the most recent abortion restrictions, saying that "until a year ago, our position would have been clear."

It said that lack of clarity on circumstances in which abortion is permitted means "doctors fear not only the loss of the right to practice their profession, but also criminal liability."

We don't know whether hospital staff would have provided abortion care if the woman's physical health was at risk – but mental health should carry equal weight in assessments of threats to the health or life of pregnant people. Their mental distress when denied abortion care is no less dangerous or debilitating than physical symptoms, and should be treated as such.

The law's chilling effect on medical personnel is real. But even before abortion became illegal on nearly all grounds, the number of medical personnel and facilities that refused to perform abortions on grounds of religious or personnel belief severely limited access to abortion in Poland.

Regardless of the reason, when doctors won't provide abortion care, women's dignity, freedom, health and lives are sacrificed.

The current government's efforts to control women's bodies aren't limited to outlawing abortion. Plans are afoot to require doctors to report all pregnancies and miscarriages to a central registry, which could lead to worrisome inquiries in cases in which pregnancies don't end in childbirth.

There are also moves to establish an Institute of Family and Demography, which would have prosecutorial powers in matters of family law and access to all government-collected data on individuals. The government and right-wing groups supporting it are also working to increase control of schools and taking aim at sexuality education.

No aspect of our lives remains untouched. At every stage of women's reproductive lives, we encounter barriers that are unthinkable to women living in other European Union countries.

Federa was able to help the woman in Bialystok get an abortion at another facility, but women and girls who are isolated or without resources may not be able to get the same help.

Abundant evidence shows that limiting legal abortion does not stop people from needing it or seeking it. A year after legal abortion was virtually eliminated in Poland, the conditions are rife for more senseless deaths. We will keep fighting back. We look to victories for reproductive rights in Ireland, Argentina and Mexico for inspiration.

But every day it feels more and more impossible to be a woman in Poland.

Author bio

Urszula Grycuk is the international advocacy coordinator at the Federation for Women and Family Planning (Federa) in Warsaw, Poland.

Disclaimer

The views expressed in this opinion piece are the author's, not those of EUobserver.

MEPs urge inclusion of abortion rights in EU charter

MEPs have recalled their demands to include the right to legal and safe abortion into the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, a day after French president Emmanuel Macron pledged to open such a debate in the EU Council.

MEPs slam Polish abortion ban: 'Women will suffer'

MEPs have condemned the near-total ban on the right to abortion in Poland, following the entry into force of the country's Constitutional Tribunal ruling - which makes 98 percent of all abortions carried out annually in the country illegal.

EU must integrate 'right to abortion' into treaties

The pushback against abortion is not happening in a vacuum. It is part of a global anti-gender trend, where transnational groups of fundamentalists support and embolden each other's actions. They are funded and active in the EU as well.

MEPs urge putting abortion in EU rights charter

The European Parliament has called to include the right to legal and safe abortion into the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, following the critical ruling overturning abortion rights in the US.

Latest News

  1. Report: Tax richest 0.5%, raise €213bn for EU coffers
  2. EU aid for Africa risks violating spending rules, Oxfam says
  3. Activists push €40bn fossil subsidies into Dutch-election spotlight
  4. Europe must Trump-proof its Ukraine arms supplies
  5. Antifascism and fascism are opposites, whatever elites say
  6. MEPs back Germany's Buch to lead ECB supervisory arm
  7. Russia to blame for Azerbaijan attack, EU says
  8. Fresh dispute may delay EU-wide migration reforms

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. International Medical Devices Regulators Forum (IMDRF)Join regulators, industry & healthcare experts at the 24th IMDRF session, September 25-26, Berlin. Register by 20 Sept to join in person or online.
  2. UNOPSUNOPS begins works under EU-funded project to repair schools in Ukraine
  3. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsGeorgia effectively prevents sanctions evasion against Russia – confirm EU, UK, USA
  4. International Medical Devices Regulators Forum (IMDRF)Join regulators & industry experts at the 24th IMDRF session- Berlin September 25-26. Register early for discounted hotel rates
  5. Nordic Council of MinistersGlobal interest in the new Nordic Nutrition Recommendations – here are the speakers for the launch
  6. Nordic Council of Ministers20 June: Launch of the new Nordic Nutrition Recommendations

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. International Sustainable Finance CentreJoin CEE Sustainable Finance Summit, 15 – 19 May 2023, high-level event for finance & business
  2. ICLEISeven actionable measures to make food procurement in Europe more sustainable
  3. World BankWorld Bank Report Highlights Role of Human Development for a Successful Green Transition in Europe
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersNordic summit to step up the fight against food loss and waste
  5. Nordic Council of MinistersThink-tank: Strengthen co-operation around tech giants’ influence in the Nordics
  6. EFBWWEFBWW calls for the EC to stop exploitation in subcontracting chains

Join EUobserver

Support quality EU news

Join us