Almost two years have passed since abortion is no longer legal in the event of serious fetal malformations in Poland, leading to the virtual ban on voluntary termination of pregnancy (IVG) in the country.
On January 27, 2021, the judgment of the Constitutional Court, which had provoked monster demonstrations throughout the country in the fall of 2020, entered into force, forcing 90% of abortions previously performed legally to go “underground”. Faced with the fait accompli – and the impossibility of legalization of abortion by the ultra-conservatives in place since 2015 in Warsaw – the mobilization of the street has weakened. But the organizations that facilitate access to abortion in the country, as well as outside its borders, are in greater demand than ever.
In two years, at least three women, who should have benefited from a therapeutic abortion, have perished. This is the figure advanced by Kamila Ferenc, deputy director of the Polish Foundation for Women and Family Planning (Federa). Most have experienced septic shock. Like Izabela, a 30-year-old mother who died in September 2021 in a hospital in the south of the country. The nursing staff had refused to intervene as long as the fetus’ heart was still beating.
Several institutions, such as Human Rights Watch or the European Parliament, have expressed concern about the repercussions on the health of Polish but also Ukrainian women, Poland being the first host country for refugees from the war in Ukraine.
“Treating abortion as a crime with rare exceptions has led doctors to believe they had better refrain from performing it”, regrette Kamila Ferenc. “The termination of pregnancy in case of danger to the life of the mother is however still authorized. However, some doctors do not trust the text of the law but what the government thinks of the law., argues the lawyer. The paralyzing effect on gynecologists is moreover such that the demands of the Monde among professionals remained unanswered.
Attesting to degraded mental health
Pro-choice organizations are therefore now forced to adopt circumvention strategies. Federa, for example, has set up a network of gynecologists ready to carry out abortions and to respect the opinions of psychiatrists attesting to degraded mental health, likely to endanger the health of their patient, which is one of the reasons for abortion. still legal in the country – with a pregnancy resulting from rape or incest. “We rely on a minority of professionals, but this is the only action we can take, apart from disseminating information about the possibilities of abortion and filing a complaint with the European Court of Human Rights. man for operations refused in Poland. »
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