The opposition denounces the government tool as a covert way to control abortions
The leader of the Polish opposition, Donald Tusk, criticized this Monday a new ordinance that expands the medical data collection of pregnant women for considering that it leads to the creation of a “pregnancy registry” to detect possible illegal abortions.
Tusk referred to a judicial disposition approved this Monday, after being presented last Friday by the Polish Minister of Health, Adam Niedzielski, who urges doctors to collect information about pregnant women and their lifestyle.
These data will be registered in the public health system and the doctors will be forced what’s more notify the authorities if they suspect that a woman has deliberately induced an abortion or caused it through unhealthy habits. In Poland, a legal reform of January 2021 made abortion illegal in practically all cases, except in cases of serious risk to the mother’s health.
“Polish women need attention, not control,” emphasized the leader of the main Polish opposition party during a statement to the press in Biestrzyki (south). Tusk added that he would like those who came up with this idea to “understand that Polish women are free peoplecitizens with full rights” and pointed out that it is the kind of initiative “that is born from the minds of male politicians with some maturity problem”.
medical access only
For his part, the spokesman for the Ministry of Health, Wojciech Andrusiewiczassured this Monday that the new measure “will not create any registry”, but will only expand the information collected according to the recommendations of the European Commission and that only doctors will have access to said history.
This will include a list of the medications that the pregnant woman has taken, her allergies, blood group, as well as a detailed follow-up of the evolution of the pregnancy. In recent months, at least two women have died in Polish hospitals in situations where doctors they delayed the extraction of already dead fetuses or that seriously threatened the life of the mother.
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According to the families of the victims, they did so out of fear of break the law that criminalizes the interruption of pregnancy even when a serious and irreversible deterioration of the fetus has been diagnosed.
During its first legislature, the ultra-conservative Polish government tried to outlaw abortion completely and push through legislation that allowed a pregnant woman to be reported to the police if she was seen smoking, drinking alcohol or practicing activities that could pose a risk to the life of the fetus. However, a wave of demonstrations across the country – known as “black protests” – led to the withdrawal of those proposals.