Poland’s national chief of police, Jarosław Szymczyk, has presented a recording of the emergency call by a doctor that led officers to intervene in the case of a woman who had reported suicidal feelings after taking abortion pills.
The police have faced criticism over their actions, which included accompanying the woman to hospital and reportedly asking her to strip, as well as confiscating her phone and laptop. In a new statement, Poland’s highest medical council has condemned the officers’ behaviour and called for an investigation.
Police intervention against a woman hospitalised after taking abortion pills has caused anger.
Officers reportedly surrounded the woman, who was asked to strip, and confiscated her devices as they investigated if someone helped her terminate her pregnancy https://t.co/5SrkvNeMWs
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) July 19, 2023
This afternoon, Szymczyk played audio of the call to emergency services, with certain parts removed due to medical privacy. It showed the doctor, a psychiatrist, informing an operator that his patient had called him from home and reporting wanting to take her own life after carrying out a procedure on herself.
While in the recording the nature of that procedure has been redacted, the woman – named only as Joanna – has told the media that she took tablets to induce an abortion. An initial statement by local police – which was later deleted – also said the doctor had reported her carrying out an abortion.
A second audio released today shows a police officer asking the doctor if the patient “was actually pregnant”. The answer is redacted, but the doctor says that the patient told her she had “ordered some tablets online”.
Szymczyk said that the recordings make clear “beyond any doubt that the main reason for the police’s action in this case [was] the report of the possibility of suicide and taking action to prevent this”. He criticised the “public lynching” his officers have faced over the case.
The police chief was asked by TVN – the broadcaster that originally publicised Joanna’s case – about officers’ subsequent actions. Joanna said that in hospital they had asked her to strip, to perform squats and to cough. An anonymous doctor from the hospital has also criticised the actions of police.
Szymczyk said that it is “standard procedure” in such cases to search a person suspected of wanting to take their own life “for dangerous tools or substances that could be used for this purpose”.
“I do not confirm the [claims] of instructions regarding coughing, but a policewoman did ask for the possibility of also checking [Joanna’s] underwear, but after information from the doctor that she had just examined these areas, the policewoman withdrew from these activities,” said Szymczuk.
Meanwhile, news website Interia today also published a recording – parts of which have already appeared on TVN – showing the situation in the hospital after police had confiscated Joanna’s laptop.
A doctor who was treating her criticised the officers for taking the device without informing Joanna and said that they had caused agitation to his patient by doing so.
Commenting on the issue, a spokesman for the police in Kraków, where the incident took place, told Interia that it was necessary for them to secure the patient’s phone and laptop as they could contain evidence as to how she purchased the tablets she had taken.
The police have received the support of interior minister Mariusz Kamiński, who said they had acted appropriately and “deserve an apology from people trying to take advantage of this situation politically”.
Policja działa zawsze gdy zagrożone jest ludzkie życie lub zdrowie. Tak było w tym przypadku gdy istniało wysokie ryzyko próby samobójczej.
W świetle konferencji Komendanta polskim Policjantom należą się przeprosiny ze strony osób próbujących politycznie wykorzystać tę sytuację.— Mariusz Kamiński (@Kaminski_M_) July 20, 2023
However, the Supreme Medical Chamber (NIL), which represents Poland’s doctors, yesterday released a statement criticising the behaviour of police at the hospital.
It noted that doctors who suspect a patient may attempt suicide are obliged to report this to the emergency services. “At the same time, we would like to emphasise that what happened to the patient is a violation of the patient’s rights,” they added.
“We do not agree to the violation of a patient’s right to intimacy, medical confidentiality and to hindering the provision of assistance to the patient,” said the statement, with NIL announcing that they would seek an investigation into the case.
Poland’s commissioner for human rights and commission for patients’ rights have both announced that they are launching investigations as well.
Szanowni Państwo
Wobec ujawnionej wczoraj sytuacji która spotkała Panią Joannę Samorząd prowadzi postepowanie wyjaśniające
Wedle uzyskanych przez nas informacji służby zostały zawiadomione ws podejrzenia próby samobójczej. Lekarz, który podejrzewa taką próbę ma obowiązek…
— Naczelna Izba Lekarska (@NaczelnaL) July 19, 2023
An opposition senator and former justice minister, Krzysztof Kwiatkowski, also condemned the police’s actions as a “violation of the law”.
“A situation in which a woman is ordered by police to undress, do squats, cough – this is the description of a situation definitely not from a democratic country, this is an outrageous situation,” Kwiatkowski told Interia.
Although Poland has some of Europe’s strictest abortion laws, terminating one’s own pregnancy is not a crime. However, assisting a woman in terminating her pregnancy is a criminal offence punishable by up to three years in prison.
A women’s rights activist has been convicted of the crime of “helping terminate a pregnancy”.
She sent abortion pills to a woman who had sought help obtaining an abortion, but whose husband discovered them and reported the case to police https://t.co/aCloNjHAfP
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) March 14, 2023
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Main image credit: TVN (screenshot)
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.
