Poland – REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS ALERTS

07 Sep

Poland eases abortion access with new guidelines for doctors under a restrictive law

MollyInternational, Latest NewsAbortion Access, Guidelines for doctors, legislation, New guidelines, Poland

"Seeking to ease access to abortion for women needing to end a pregnancy for health reasons, Poland's government is issuing guidelines to doctors Friday that reaffirm the legality of such procedures, based on medical recommendations. Under the current law, abortions for health reasons are permitted but the previous conservative government limited some other qualifying circumstances, leading to mass street protests and heightening the reluctance of doctors to expose themselves to a possible prosecution...."

27 Aug

Polish abortion restrictions violate women’s rights: UN

AlanLatest NewsAbortion Rights, International, Poland, United Nations

Poland’s restrictive laws on abortion are violating women’s rights, a United Nations committee said Monday, saying the rules had contributed to “several preventable deaths”.

12 Aug

Poland’s Abortion Reform Stalls as Coalition Politics Clash with Campaign Promises

MollyInternational, Latest NewsAbortion Care, Abortion laws, abortion reform, Health care, Poland

“Nearly a year after new Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk promised a fresh start for abortion rights, following his election victory in October 2023, reform efforts have stalled as campaign promises collide with the realities of coalition politics in a divided Poland. Poland is amongst only four countries worldwide to have restricted abortion rights in the past three decades, joining El Salvador, Nicaragua, and the United States. In 2020, Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal, stacked with judges appointed by the right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) party, further tightened the country’s already strict 1993 abortion law….”

12 Jul

Polish Parliament Rejects Bill Seeking to Ease Strict Abortion Law

BarbraLatest NewsAbortion Care, Abortion Rights, International Abortion News, legislation, Poland

Poland's lower house rejected a bill on Friday that sought to scrap penalties for people who help someone to get an abortion, highlighting deep divisions in the ruling coalition over easing one of Europe's most restrictive abortion laws. Under the draft law, people helping to arrange an abortion, for example by providing abortion pills, and doctors performing terminations in the early weeks of pregnancy or due to foetal anomalies would no longer have faced charges.

18 Jun

First hospital fined for refusing to provide abortion under new Polish government rules

MollyInternational, Latest NewsAbortion Care, fined, Healthcare, Hospital, Legal abortion, Poland

"A hospital has been fined for refusing to provide a legal abortion in the first such case since the government recently introduced a requirement for publicly funded medical centres to offer such procedures. Health minister Izabela Leszczyna announced on Monday that the Pabianice Medical Center was fined 550,000 zloty (€126,300). She revealed that audit proceedings regarding two other medical facilities are also in the “final stages” and that they are also likely to be penalised."

15 Jan

Tusk pledges bill introducing “legal and safe abortion” in Poland

MollyInternationalAbortion, abortion bills, Abortion Care, Abortion Rights, Bill, International, Legal and safe abortion, legislation, Poland

"Poland’s prime minister, Donald Tusk, has pledged that his centrist Civic Coalition (KO) political grouping will submit a bill to liberalise the abortion law. He admitted, however, that it remains uncertain if he can gather enough support from his more conservative coalition partners to pass the measure. “Civic Coalition will submit a bill that gives the right to safe abortion up to the 12th week [of pregnancy] with certain conditions,” said Tusk in an interview on Friday with Poland’s largest three television stations, TVP, Polsat and TVN...."

14 Nov

Polish Left Submits Bills To Liberalise Abortion Law

MollyInternational, Latest NewsAbortion Access, Abortion assistance, Abortion Care, Abortion Rights, Decriminalization, Poland, Termination, twelve weeks

"Poland's leftists, part of a coalition in control of the new parliament, said on Tuesday they had submitted two bills to liberalise one of Europe's most restrictive abortion laws. Abortion in the majority-Catholic country is currently legal only if the pregnancy results from sexual assault or incest or threatens the life or health of the woman. "One of them provides for full legalisation of the right to terminate a pregnancy until the 12th week," Left lawmaker Anna Maria Zukowska told AFP. "The other is a bill decriminalising abortion assistance," she added. The draft legislation was submitted on Monday, when Poland's…

16 Sep

The war on women who use abortion pills takes a terrifying new turn

BarbraInternationalAbortion Pills, Abortion Rights, Healthcare, International, Poland

Researchers in Poland have developed tests that can detect if a woman has taken mifepristone. It’s a chilling development

14 Sep

Poland’s ‘witch hunt’ of women and girls

MollyInternationalAbortion Ban, Abortion Pills, Healthcare, Medication abortion, Poland

"...Women and girls have been put under intense scrutiny for alleged abortion-related activity when they seek urgent health care. Joanna, a 32-year-old woman, told HRW that the police demanded to strip search her in April after she had a self-administered medication abortion, which is legal. Two weeks later, she called her psychiatrist for help with symptoms of severe anxiety. During the call, she disclosed her abortion to her psychiatrist, who called an ambulance and contacted the police. Police arrived at Joanna’s apartment alongside a paramedic and escorted her to two different hospitals. At the second one, she was ordered to…

23 Jul

Police at the hospital: Abortion battle heats up in Poland

MollyUnited StatesAbortion Ban, Abortion Rights, Europe, Government, legislation, Poland, Police action, United States

"...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...."

20 Jul

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

MollyInternationalAbortion Ban, Abortion Pills, Abortion Restriction, Emergency Contraceptive Pills, International, Krakow, Poland, Police action

"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, But the state saw it…

14 Jun

Poles hold protests demanding liberalized abortion law after death of pregnant woman

MollyInternationalAbortion Care, Abortion restrictions, Abortion Rights, Healthcare, legislation, Poland, Protest

"Poles demanding a liberalization of the abortion law protested in Warsaw and other Polish cities on Wednesday after a woman who was five months pregnant died of sepsis, the latest such death since a tightening of Poland’s abortion law. The protesters vented their fury against the ruling party, Law and Justice, or PiS, over several deaths in maternity wards in the past couple of years. The cases involved hospitals that refused to terminate pregnancies due to the presence of a fetal heartbeat even when the women were in grave danger...."

14 Jun

Women have right to abortion if life is threatened says PM

MollyInternationalAbortion Care, Abortion Rights, Healthcare, legislation, Poland

"Mateusz Morawiecki, the Polish prime minister, has said a woman can have an abortion if there is any threat to the her life or health. The prime minister was speaking in reaction to the death of a 33-year-old woman last month. The woman died from septic shock after being hospitalised in the southern town of Nowy Targ in the fifth month of pregnancy...."