December 14th According to the Guardian, Poland passed a court ruling in October this year that will prohibit women from abortion in the event of severe fetal malformations.
Although the ruling has not yet been implemented, more and more Polish women have been forced to go abroad for surgery.
According to the ruling of the Polish Constitutional Court, abortion can only be performed in the case of rape, incest and the health of pregnant women is threatened. In addition, even severely deformed fetuses cannot terminate pregnancy.
In Poland, which has the strictest “abortion law” in Europe, 98% of legal abortions in 2019 were caused by severe fetal malformations.
Although the ruling has not been formally promulgated under pressure, many hospitals are reluctant to risk violating the law to carry out surgery. A number of non-governmental organizations launched a fund last year to help Polish women go abroad for surgery.
More than 250 women have now gone to Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom to terminate their pregnancy.
In response to the ruling, former Polish Prime Minister and chairman of the ruling party, Jarosław Kaczy ?? ski claimed: “Even during a painful pregnancy, the child must die or be seriously deformed.
We still need to ensure that he or she can be born so that he or she can be baptized, buried in the ground, and have a name.”
The ruling triggered large-scale protests in Warsaw and other cities. Demonstrators gathered around Kaczy ?? ski’s residence twice to clash with the police, holding up slogans such as “This is a war” and “We want to fight for all rights”.
Since the ruling passed, the NGO Abortion Dream Team has seen a significant increase in calls for help, including some women who are not pregnant. “They want to know what options are available if they really find themselves pregnant with a deformed fetus.”
The New York Times reported that for weeks, thousands of women, teenagers and their male allies walked to the streets of cities and towns across the country every few days. It is worth noting that many surprising young faces have emerged from the protest crowd.”
Although we are exhausted and have to cope with work and study, there is a certain pressure that makes us have to participate in every protest. Zoe, a 15-year-old protest activist, said.
In Poland, fewer than 2,000 cases of legal termination of pregnancy occur every year. However, women’s organizations estimate that up to 200,000 abortions are illegal or performed abroad.
Earlier, several UN human rights experts issued statements pointing out that Poland’s ruling violated the country’s international human rights obligations in the name of protecting the right to life of unborn fetuses at the expense of women’s right to safe and legal termination services.
