Abortion cannot be permitted on mental health grounds, declares Polish church

Poland’s Catholic church has declared that it is not legal, ethical or beneficial to women to allow abortion on the grounds that the mother suffers from a mental health problem. Permitting this would effectively mean “the relegalisation of abortion on demand”, warn the bishops.

Their position – which is contradicted by leading medical bodies – has been rejected by reproductive rights organisations in Poland, who also argue that the church has misinterpreted or misrepresented the law.

Since January 2021 – when a constitutional court ruling banning abortion on the grounds of birth defects went into force – terminations have only been legally permitted in two cases: if the pregnancy results from a criminal act (such as rape) or if it threatens the mother’s life or health.

Many hospitals and doctors have interpreted the latter justification as including cases in which a pregnancy threatens the mother’s mental health. That has led to psychiatrists’ opinions being used to obtain abortions.

Even Jarosław Kaczyński, the chairman of Poland’s conservative ruling party, has defended the current near-total abortion ban by noting that “among the options for allowing abortion is mental health”.

However, there have also been documented cases of doctors refusing to accept psychiatrists’ opinions as grounds for abortion. “Doctors are afraid not only of losing the right to practise, but also of criminal liability,” said the director of one hospital in 2021.

Now, the Polish Episcopal Conference (KEP), the central organ of the Catholic church in Poland, has issued an opinion by its bioethics committee “on the admissibility of abortion based on mental health grounds”.

“There is no doubt that in the course of pregnancy there are situations where a woman’s mental health deteriorates,” wrote the committee. “At first glance, abortion may seem like the only way to relieve such suffering, but in reality it is not.”

“Restoration of mental health is carried out with the help of therapeutic methods, in particular pharmacological therapy, psychotherapy and psychoeducation,” continued their statement.

“Abortion is not a therapeutic method used in treatment. Killing a child cannot be considered a means of restoring a woman’s health,” adds the committee, which warns that “abortion itself often results in very serious complications in mental health” for the mother.

That position stands in contrast to mainstream medical opinion. An article published this year by the American Psychological Association notes that “scientific research from around the world shows having an abortion is not linked to mental health issues but restricting access [to abortion] is”.

Likewise, the World Health Organisation notes that a “lack of access to safe, timely, affordable and respectful abortion care poses a risk to not only the physical, but also the mental and social, wellbeing of women and girls”.

In its statement, the Polish episcopate’s bioethics committee argues that abortion justified by a mother’s mental health is not only unethical and harmful, but also unlawful.

“Abortion cannot be legally allowed due to the presence of mental disorders in the mother,” they write, as this would violate the constitution and code of medical ethics and would “in practice mean relegalising abortion on demand”.

That position is, again, contradicted by mainstream scientific thought. In a position published earlier this year, the bioethics committee of the Polish Academic of Sciences (PAN), the leading state research body, argued that abortion when a mother’s mental health is threatened is both lawful and ethical.

The church committee recommends that, instead of abortions in cases where a mother is suffering mental health problems, “the church and the state as well as non-governmental organisations [should] offer the woman comprehensive support”.

That can include homes for single mothers, adoption centres, perinatal hospitals and so-called “windows of life” where people can leave infants.

It also argues that, even in cases where a mentally ill woman becomes pregnant as a result of abuse, abortion is not justified. Instead, both the woman and her child should be cared for and, if she is unable to assume parental responsibility, a place in a care centre – “for example, institutions run by nuns” – should be found.

The presence of that latter recommendation, however, was criticised by Małgorzata Solecka, a medical journalist writing for Tygodnik Powszechny, a liberal Catholic weekly. She says that it shows that the church’s experts are unable to differentiate between mental illness and intellectual disability.

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Main image credit: Jakub Wlodek / Agencja Wyborcza.pl

Daniel Tilles

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.