On Friday, Polish hospitals will receive guidelines from the Health Ministry aimed at improving real access to abortion. They were developed in cooperation with the health and justice ministries.
Hospitals will be provided with detailed information on the applicable legal provisions regarding access to termination of pregnancy.
“The guidelines will be a tool that will allow medical institutions to adequately adapt the legal provisions in this area, and thus improve the effective availability of the procedure for termination of pregnancy. This tool aims to ensure equal and lawful treatment for women who wish to exercise their rights in this area of law,” said Jakub Gołąb, spokesman for the Ministry of Health.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk said last Friday that there would be no majority in the current parliament in favor of “legal abortion in the full sense of the word.”. He announced, among other things, that in this case “there will be a completely different practice in the Public Prosecutor’s Office and in Polish hospitals”.
In early August, Attorney General Adam Bodnar issued guidelines to prosecutors on handling cases involving refusal to terminate a pregnancy and medical abortion.
On July 12, the Sejm rejected the draft amendment to the Criminal Code, which presumed the decriminalization of abortion assistance and termination of pregnancy with the consent of the pregnant woman up to the 12th week of pregnancy.It took several votes to approve the amendment, including from MPs from the ruling coalition.
According to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), Polish abortion regulations violate women’s rights. This is the result of an investigation into Polish abortion law launched in 2021. The Committee noted that Polish law is so restrictive that, for fear of legal liability, some doctors do not perform abortions even in situations where the law allows it, which can threaten the woman’s life.
In 2023, 423 pregnancy terminations were carried out in hospitals; in 2022 – 161; in 2021 – 107, in 2020 – 1,076, in 2019 – 1,110.
In October 2020, the Constitutional Court ruled that the premise allowing termination of pregnancy was unconstitutional due to the high probability of severe and irreversible fetal impairment. The Constitutional Court’s decision came into force on January 27, 2021, and the provision allowing abortion for this condition lost its validity. Currently, termination of pregnancy is possible in two cases: when the pregnancy threatens the life or health of the woman, or when it results from a prohibited act (for example, rape or incest)..
