Questions have emerged over last month’s reports of a disabled rape victim who was allegedly refused an abortion that she was legally entitled to by a hospital in her home region.
Health minister Adam Niedzielski has raised a number of doubts over the story, including pointing out that the victim was wrongly identified as being 14 years old when she was in fact 24 and claiming that there is no record of any hospital turning her away. He called the case a “colossal manipulation calculated to evoke emotions”.
The victim’s aunt, however, has responded by accusing Niedzielski of lying about what happened. She and her niece have continued to receive the backing of the women’s rights group, Federa, that helped them eventually obtain an abortion and originally publicised the case.
Ciotka zgwałconej 24-latki, której odmówiono aborcji: Niedzielski i rzecznik praw pacjenta kłamią!https://t.co/2HPvpHuJxK
— Gazeta Wyborcza.pl (@gazeta_wyborcza) February 10, 2023
When Federa first reported the case on 20 January, it described the victim as being 14 years old and said that she had been refused an abortion by “hospitals in her area”.
In fact, it has now been confirmed that the victim, who has intellectual disabilities, was 24 years old. Moreover, her aunt, in an interview published today by the Gazeta Wyborcza daily, says that they were only turned away by one hospital in their home province of Podlasie in northeast Poland.
When doubts about the story first began to emerge last week, Federa said that it had reported what it was told by the victim’s family but could not clarify the situation any further out of respect for their privacy.
The women's rights group that publicised the case says a family member of the rape victim told them she was 14 but they cannot reveal more details for privacy reasons.
They also say that it is not surprising that hospitals would not want to admit to breaking the law pic.twitter.com/l1OsFgjUAf
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) February 3, 2023
At a press conference yesterday, Niedzielski and Commissioner for Patients’ Rights Bartłomiej Chmielowiec, a government appointee, presented the results of an investigation into the case.
Chmielowiec said that the 24-year-old rape victim had obtained an abortion in Warsaw three hours after receiving a certificate from prosecutors on 29 December confirming that she was permitted to terminate the pregnancy. He added that there was no record of any medical facility in Podlasie refusing to perform an abortion for her.
Under Poland’s abortion law – which is the strictest in Europe apart from Malta’s – abortion is only permitted in two cases: if the pregnancy results from a criminal act, or if it threatens the life or health of the mother.
The account presented by Chmielowiec contradicts that initially reported by Federa, which said that the victim had first been denied an abortion in Podlasie and only then had her aunt contacted Federa, which helped them obtain an abortion in Warsaw.
Niedzielski said that the story as initially reported had been a “colossal manipulation” and he appealed to the press to be more objective in reporting information. He added that the ministry was “considering” whether to take legal action against Federa, reports the Polish Press Agency (PAP).
Minister zdrowia @a_niedzielski: Mieliśmy do czynienia z kolosalną manipulacją ws. odmowy terminacji ciąży na Podlasiu#wieszwięcej pic.twitter.com/gehNKKeO08
— tvp.info 🇵🇱 (@tvp_info) February 9, 2023
In a statement issued on Tuesday this week, Federa admitted that it had wrongly identified the girl as being 14 years old, which it blamed on a misunderstanding with her family. It apologised for the error.
However, it stood by the rest of its previous reporting, saying that “all other information regarding this case is true”. The fact that the victim was 24 and not 14 makes “her story no less heartbreaking” and makes no difference to the fact that she was denied a legal abortion, wrote Federa.
While the victim’s family had previously sought to avoid making any public comment, today the girl’s aunt – who helped her obtain the abortion – gave an interview to Gazeta Wyborcza in which she accused Niedzielski of “lying” and “talking nonsense” at yesterday’s press conference.
She said that she had taken her niece to one hospital in Podlasie on 28 December when they already had a certificate from prosecutors authorising an abortion. Despite seeing the document, the head doctor said that they would not carry out the abortion, citing the so-called “conscience clause”, claims the aunts.
That clause legally allows individual doctors to refuse to carry out an abortion if it conflicts with their beliefs. But the medical facilitity is still required to direct the patient to a doctor who can carry out the procedure, something that Federa says did not happen in this case.
The aunt says that “maybe it was my mistake that I didn’t demand a written confirmation from the head doctor” about refusing the abortion. “But I didn’t think about it” at the time, she adds.
Only after being turned away by the hospital in Podlasie did the aunt turn to Federa for help obtaining an abortion in Warsaw on the following day, 29 December.
She denied the authorities’ claim that the abortion was obtained just three hours after the issuing of a certificate by prosecutors, noting that it would not even be possible to for them to have travelled to Warsaw in that amount of time.
Main image credit: Katarzyna Link/LUW (under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 PL)
Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.
