FEDERA and ASTRA Network at the ICFP 2025 International Conference on Family Planning in Bogotá
We were represented by Ewa Szymera – coordinator of ASTRA Network and co-founder of the “Pink Box” initiative – and Justyna Faszcza, a lawyer advocating for women’s rights within FEDERA’s Legal Team and a psychologist. It was intense time full of panels, discussions, and exchange of good practices. We were selected, together with other organizations, to lead panels from among 5,174 submissions, and we are deeply grateful for this recognition!
The theme of ICFP 2025, “Equity through Action: Advancing Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights for All,” reflects the urgent need to address systemic inequalities through innovative solutions and concrete commitments. FEDERA’s and ASTRA’s work focuses on bringing these issues to the international arena while fighting for access to healthcare at the national and regional levels.
In our joint FEDERA and ASTRA panel, we analyzeed how growing anti-gender movements and authoritarian governments undermine sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) in Central and Eastern Europe. We exploreed how feminist movements resist this backlash through legal action, the provision of direct support and services, and community-based strategies, with particular attention to marginalized groups. We emphasizeed the urgent need for cross-regional solidarity and international support for SRHR defenders working in increasingly repressive environments.
Central and Eastern Europe is often marginalized in global SRHR discussions, yet today the region has become a key battleground against regressive political agendas. Governments, often allied with the far right, exploit nationalism, traditionalist ideologies, and “pro-family” rhetoric to roll back hard-won reproductive rights. This regression particularly harms disadvantaged and minority groups, by restricting access to contraception, abortion, and comprehensive sexuality education.
Another Victory for FEDERA in Strasbourg
13th November 2025, the European Court of Human Rights ruled in the case of A.R. v. Poland (6030/21) that Poland had violated Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, concerning the protection of private and family life, with the Constitutional Tribunal’s ‘ruling’ banning abortion due to foetal defects.
At the time of the Constitutional Tribunal’s ruling, Ms A.R. was in the fifteenth week of a wanted pregnancy. Medical tests in November 2020 confirmed that her foetus had trisomy 18. Ms A.R. did not want to risk the ‘verdict’ being published before she had completed all the formalities required for an abortion in hospital. For this reason, she travelled to the Netherlands, where she terminated her pregnancy in a private clinic, which cost her a total of nearly €1,500. Poland deprived her of her right to healthcare and forced her to leave, unlawfully interfering in her private life. Now it will have to pay her €17,000 for this.
This is yet another abortion ruling against Poland. International courts are saying the same thing we are: our law does not work. There is only one way to change it – immediate legalisation and decriminalisation of abortion.
Ms A.R. was represented by solicitors Agata Bzdyń, Kamila Ferenc and Monika Gąsiorowska from the FEDERA Legal Team.
FEDERA at the Polish Senate
The Polish Senate hosted a conference entitled ‘HPV Prevention in Poland and Europe – Successes, Challenges, the Way Forward’, during which the latest HPV Prevention Policy Atlas Europe 2025 was presented – one of the key tools for monitoring the activities of European countries in the area of vaccination, screening and education concerning HPV.
The FEDERA Foundation and Astra Network were represented by Mateusz Bieżuński and Ewa Szymera.
The conference brought together representatives of the Senate, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Education, experts in public health, epidemiology, oncology, prevention and patient organisations. Poland’s current position compared to other European countries was discussed, key systemic gaps were identified and good practices that could be implemented were presented.
