MONITORING & ADVOCACY

MONITORING & ADVOCACY

The Federation for Women and Family Planning is a non-governmental organization established in 1991 to fight for sexual and reproductive health and rights. Together with the Federation’s Legal Assistance Team we monitor the access to abortion, contraception, and sexuality education.

In controlling the current situation, first and foremost we pay attention to the lack of implementation and therefore fictitious character of the 1993 Family Planning Act. As part of monitoring the observance of women’s sexual and reproductive rights in Poland, we keep track of changes to the relevant legals acts.

Since its establishment the Federation has used the tools of legal and advocacy interventions. Working for the right to conscious parenthood, we intervene in cases of women being refused access to reproductive and sexual health care services, and in special instances we support women who assert their rights in the frameworks of the Polish or the international system of justice.

We also advocate for the access to adequate quality reproductive and sexual health services and for the restoration of the women’s right to abortion.

As part of our legal and advocacy work we formulate positions on the legislative process, review the newly established acts, prepare commentaries to the introduced changes, and appeal to the authorities.

Additionally, the Federation’s Legal Team provides legal assistance in cases regarding reproductive and sexual rights, especially:

  • the realization of the right to legal abortion
  • the access to contraception
  • the access to prenatal testing
  • the patient’s rights (right to services, right to information, right to medical documentation, right to respect for privacy and dignity)
  • the faulty medical performance (doctors overusing the conscience clause, violating patient’s rights)
  • the infringement of personal rights in the health care system
  • the medical error- and medical incidents-related cases

Polish Government to Limit Access to the Morning-After Pill

The Polish government wants to restrict access to emergency contraception. A governmental draft law approved on Tuesday, 14 February 2017 ...

“Save Women” bill with 500 000 signatures submitted to the Polish Parliament

On October, 23 the “Save Women” Civic Committee has tabled almost 500 000 signatures collected under the bill on women’s ...

Attempts to use the non-sovereign Constitutional Tribunal in order to restrict women’s rights to legal abortion

A group of extremist MPs, mainly from the ruling party Law and Justice (PiS) and Kukiz’15, submitted a motion challenging ...

#25YearsOfWomen’sHell – 25th disgraceful anniversary of the Polish anti-abortion law

7th January 1993 Act on Family Planning, Human Embryo Protection and Conditions of Legal Pregnancy Termination (later: the Act) has ...

Conformism, contempt & conceit – voting on abortion-related bills in the Polish Parliament

10/01 will be remembered as another day when Polish women were betrayed by people who were given mandate to represent ...

“Suffocating the Movement – Shrinking space for women’s rights”

Increasing fundamentalism, conservatism and traditional values started suffocating the women’s movement. Women were physically prevented from moving freely and women’s ...

Joint submission to the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

The Federation for Women and Family Planning, TUS Foundation, Strefa Wenus z Milo Association, Elektrownia Inspiracji Foundation, Stowarzyszenie Inicjatyw Kobiecych/Association ...

ARROW for Change – The Right to Choose

The decision and choice on whether to have children, when to have them, how many children to have and in ...
Fighting anti-choice drastic banners. Truck towed.

Fighting drastic anti-choice banners. Case study: Poland

The anti-choice organizations in Poland are becoming more and more visible in the public sphere with their drastic images which ...

SRHR in Poland during the Covid-19 pandemic – update on the worrying legislative “developments”

April 2020: Parliamentary debate on 2 legislative proposals quasi totally banning abortion and sexuality education In the midst of coronavirus ...