Renewed protests in Poland as hospitals refuse abortions

Polish pro-choice activists are planning new countrywide protests against strict abortion laws and medical personnel refusing to provide legal abortions after another woman died due to pregnancy complications.

Ongoing pro-choice protests picked up momentum this week when it was revealed that five months pregnant 33-year-old Dorota died in a hospital in the southern town of Nowy Targ on 24 May after she was diagnosed with “total amenorrhoea.”

“We are protesting against the medical malpractice of doctors in Poland, who deny women abortions in – still legal – circumstances: when pregnancy is a threat to women’s life or health,” Polish Women’s Strike, the country’s main movement advocating for the liberalisation of abortion rights, said in a statement.

Dorota was deprived of necessary medical procedures that could have saved her life. On top of that, she was not informed that there was no chance of saving the pregnancy, the Polish Women’s Strike said about the tragic case.

Indeed, the doctors did not take measures appropriate to Dorota’s condition, depriving her of the ability to decide to terminate her pregnancy to save her life, Jolanta Budzowska, lawyer of Dorota’s family, said in the statement.

Protests under the slogan “#NotOneMore,” meaning that no more women should die deprived of abortion, will occur in several Polish cities and towns and abroad, including in Berlin, London and Vienna over the next few days.

Since a very controversial ruling from the Polish Constitutional Tribunal that sparked huge protests in 2020, Poland only allows abortions when the mother’s life is in danger or if the pregnancy results from rape.

Poland’s ruling conservative PiS party “gave the medical community the opportunity, the excuse, to torture patients and watch them die,” said Marta Lempart, leader of the Polish Women’s Strike.

Still, some doctors’ “eagerly taking advantage of this” is only about them, not (Jarosław) Kaczynski, she added, referring to PiS’ leader.

“Nobody requires them to be heroic, just to act in accordance with the law and provide legal abortions,” Lempart added.

(Aleksandra Krzysztoszek | EURACTIV.pl)