Polish abortion activist convicted for helping terminate pregnancy

A women’s rights activist has been convicted of the crime of “helping terminate a pregnancy” by sending self-administered abortion pills to a pregnant woman, whose husband discovered them and reported the case to police.

Her trial, which began a year ago, has drawn international attention, with human rights groups and members of the European Parliament criticising the Polish authorities for pursuing prosecution. Today’s guilty verdict has been condemned by, among others, Amnesty International, who called for it to be overturned.

The activist, Justyna Wydrzyńska, is a member of a collective known as Abortion Dream Team that helps women in Poland who want to terminate their pregnancies.

In the case in question, a 12-weeks-pregnant woman, named only as Anna, had contacted the group seeking help to travel abroad for an abortion. But her husband forced her to remain in Poland, so instead Wydrzyńska provided Anna with abortion pills. The husband discovered them and informed the police.

Wydrzyńska was then charged under a 1997 law that criminalises “providing a pregnant woman with help in terminating a pregnancy or inducing her to do so”. Those found guilty can face up to three years in prison.

In a ruling issued today, a district court in Warsaw found Wydrzyńska guilty and sentenced her to eight months of community service. Much of the trial was held behind closed doors, and Abortion Dream Team notes that the court’s justification for the ruling will not be made public.

Wydrzyńska was, however, acquitted of a second charge of “possessing medical products with the intent to place them on the market”, which could have carried a prison sentence of up to two years.

Speaking in court, the activist maintained her innocence: “It is the state that is guilty – it has failed me, Anna and millions of women,” she declared. She added that “every empathetic woman” would act the same way to “help another woman in need”.

The prosecutor, however, argued that Wydrzyńska had violated the law with “direct intent” and that her actions had caused a “significant degree of social harm, taking into account the violated prenatal life”, reports news website Gazeta.pl.

While prosecutors had demanded 10 months of community service for the activist, Ordo Iuris, an ultranconservative legal group that had supported the case against Wydrzyńska, called for her to be given a suspended prison sentence.

“You rarely see a person boasting about a crime they committed,” said Magdalena Majkowska of Ordo Iuris during closing arguments in court. But “the accused put up a performance in order to promote even further the crime she has committed”.

Ordo Iuris last year published a guide to encourage the prosecution of those who use, supply and advertise abortion pills, which are the main way that women terminate pregnancies in a country where abortion is almost completely banned.

Since January 2021, abortions have only been allowed in cases where the pregnancy results from a criminal act or where it threatens the mother’s life or health. Those new rules were the result of a constitutional court ruling the previous October that toughened what was already one of Europe’s strictest abortion laws.

However, last week an attempt to introduce a law criminalising those who “publicly promote or call for abortion”, or even provide information on how women can obtain abortions, was rejected by parliament.

Main image credit: Adam Stepien / Agencja Wyborcza.pl

Agnieszka Wądołowska

Agnieszka Wądołowska is deputy editor of Notes from Poland. She has previously worked for Gazeta.pl and Tokfm.pl and contributed to Gazeta Wyborcza, Wysokie Obcasy, Duży Format, Midrasz and Kultura Liberalna