WARSAW (Parliament Politics Magazine): An activist told Euronews that Polish women are afraid of becoming pregnant because they fear they won’t be able to abort if issues arise, putting their lives in jeopardy.
On January 27, Poland will commemorate the one-year anniversary of its almost complete ban on abortion.
That happened after the constitutional court of the country ruled that terminating pregnancies, even in circumstances of severe and permanent foetal anomalies, was illegal.
ever since that, the only exceptions to the rule have been in cases of incest or rape, and when there is danger to the health of the mother.Â
However, activists claim that this has been difficult in practise. They claim that two women have died in the last year as a result of being denied abortions despite their health being in jeopardy.
“Women in Poland are now terrified to get pregnant,” said Urszula Grycuk, international advocacy coordinator at the Polish Federation for Women and Family Planning (Federa).
“They frequently call the federation’s helpline, asking, “What happens if…?” Will I be able to receive that kind of service or not?”
The law’s supporters argue that “all life is valuable” and that it was enacted to prevent the abortion of Down’s syndrome foetuses.
Prosecution fears
Activists claim that the ruling of Poland’s constitutional court had an immediate stifling impact.
Women who take pills at home or travel overseas to abort can’t be prosecuted under present law, but anyone who assists them may. Family members, friends, partners, medical professionals as well as activists, are all examples.
Doctors and hospitals are afraid of being penalised, thus they are now overly concerned with following the law, according to Grycuk.
Protests erupt following the death of a woman
Septic shock claimed the life of Izabela (not her real name). The 30-year-old woman was in her 22nd week of pregnancy, and scans revealed several problems in the foetus, yet physicians chose to perform a caesarian after the baby died rather than perform an abortion.
Following the news of her death in early November, there were large protests.
The hospital where the woman died released a statement saying that it was “united in pain” with her family and others who were mourning her death, and that its staff had done all possible to rescue her and the unborn.
In the meantime, Federa has filed a complaint against a hospital for reportedly refusing to perform an abortion on a lady whose foetus had acrania, which means there was no foetal skull and brain tissue was exposed to amniotic fluid, despite the pregnancy’s devastating impact on her mental health.
Anencephaly is the most common complication of acromegaly, and almost all newborns born with anencephaly die soon after delivery.
According to Federa, the woman, known only as Agata, had received two separate certificates from independent psychiatrists attesting that she had developed reactive psychotic disorders as a result of her stressful pregnancy and was thus a suicide risk.
In July, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) revealed that over 1,000 complaints regarding the law that took effect in January 2021 had been received, and that it had requested Warsaw to respond to 12 of them.
A 27-year-old among them(not pregnant),expressed concern about being denied necessary medical attention if issues arose. Her partner has a chromosomal disorder that reduces her odds of having a healthy baby to less than 50%. “She is concerned that this scenario will have a negative impact on her pregnancy,” the ECJ said.
“The applicant claims that the Constitutional Court’s decision has thwarted her family planning.” She is so frightened that she has put off making a decision.
