Relevant SRHR developments in Poland
Justyna Wydrzyńska court case
On October 2022, the third! hearing of abortion activist Justyna Wydrzyńska was adjourned by the Praga District Court in Warsaw. The case was not heard because the witness of accusation failed to appear in court yet another time. Justyna is charged with helping in abortion on the basis of Article 152.2 of the Polish Penal Code, and possession of unauthorized drugs with the aim of introducing them to the market under Article 124 of the Pharmaceutical Law. If convicted, she faces up to three years in prison. The hearing was adjourned until January 11. Follow Justyna’s campaign here
FEDERA’s partner organization, Center for Reproductive Rights filed an amicus with the court condemning the Polish antiabortion law and practice.
FEDERA news and projects
2 years after the Constitutional Tribunal’s ruling
Two years have passed since the illegitimate Constitutional Court’s ruling on abortion. On 22 October 2020, Polish flowed Constitutional Tribunal ruled that terminating a pregnancy in the case of severe fetal abnormalities is unconstitutional.
FEDERA is the only organization that helps women to get access to legal abortion in Polish hospitals. The second year after the antiabortion ruling was a time of full speed work for FEDERA given the additional challenges brought by the humanitarian crisis.
Over the last year, we have received 20,042 phone calls – during office hours, in the evenings and at weekends. We answered questions about, among other things, abortion, contraception and the pregnancy register. We answered 12,000 messages and emails. This is more than twice as many as in the first year after the ruling (there were 8 142 phone calls and 5 000 emails) and almost 4 times as many as before the ruling.
We intervene in hospitals for abortions in situations where it is no longer possible to go abroad. In the last year we have carried out 28 interventions in hospitals.
In two years, FEDERA’s lawyers have also filed 30 complaints to the European Court of Human Rights in cases where hospitals have violated patients’ rights.
Read more about FEDERA work here and Abortion Dream Team work and 2nd year statistics in helping with abortions here.
For the detailed information about all our activities please check both polish and English websites, our FB and Twitter account.
FEDERA continues its SRHR support for Ukrainian refugees
LEAFLET ON REPRODUCTIVE HEALTHCARE FOR WOMEN REFUGEES and information on our legal helpline I Ukrainian and Polish here
Update on antigender movement in Poland
New civic initiative to ban providing information on access to abortion
Centrum Życia i Rodziny (Center of Life and Family), which is a legal, polish antichoice NGO, has started collecting signatures for a bill banning information on non-statutory abortion. The draft, available in polish here penalizes, inter alia, public information about the possibility of abortion within and outside Poland, or even owning the materials about abortion. This bill if adopted is sure to be an effective tool to outlaw many of FEDERA activities regarding SRHR and ban the activities of other groups and organisations helping persons with abortion.
Read FEDERA comments on the draft here (in Polish).
Supreme Court’s decision on the public display of bloody fetuses
The Supreme Court acquitted a Pro- Prawo do Życia (Pro-Right to Life Foundation) activist convicted of allegedly posting indecent content (poster of an aborted fetus) in a public place, which is an offence.
The Courts, both in the first and second instance, found them guilty of the alleged act, but the cassation against the final judgment was brought by the Prosecutor General (ex officio Minister of Justice, member of the government). This is the third ruling by the Supreme Court indicating that it is possible to publicly display such photographs.