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Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and is published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.
Activists in Poland have launched what they say is the world’s first delivery locker that provides women with abortion pills, access to which is normally tightly restricted.
They have placed the device opposite parliament in Warsaw, a location intended to send a message to the politicians who have made Poland’s abortion laws among the strictest in the world.
The locker (called an “abortomat” in Polish, combining the words aborcja, meaning abortion, and automat, meaning an automatic machine) has been launched by Women Help Women (WHW), a global organisation that provides “self-managed abortion”, and Abortion Dream Team (ADT), a Polish activist group.
They emphasise that the installation “is completely real [and] not an artistic performance”. It consists of 22 numbered lockers and a numeric keypad. Women who have contacted WHM seeking an abortion are given a six-digit PIN code that opens one of the doors, inside which is a package containing the pills.
Recipients can either take the pills at home or do so in a specially prepared space opened last year by ADT and where the locker is located.
The activists emphasise that such delivery mechanisms for abortion pills are particularly important in Poland because of the country’s highly restrictive laws.
Abortions are only allowed in two circumstances: if pregnancy is the result of a crime (such as rape or incest) or if it threatens the mother’s life or health. As a result, only 851 legal terminations took place in Poland last year.
However, activist groups such as WHW, ADT and Women on Web (WOW) say that they help tens of thousands of women in Poland obtain abortions each year through other means, in particular by providing pills.
But they face legal risks for doing so: assisting someone in obtaining an unlawful abortion is a crime punishable by up to three years in prison. In 2023, ABW activist Justyna Wydrzyńska was convicted of that offence. Two years later, the sentence was annulled on a technicality and a new trial was ordered.
Polish activist Justyna Wydrzyńska, who was convicted for providing abortion pills to a pregnant woman, has succeeded in having the conviction overturned on appeal.
However, the case will now return to the lower court, where it will be heard again https://t.co/U3J5FmXdMw
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) February 14, 2025
“The abortomat transforms a closely guarded, criminalised procedure into something as simple as picking up a package,” wrote ADT. “A door that opens when all others have slammed shut.”
They say that the machine is intended for women who have an urgent medical need that means they cannot wait for the several days it takes to deliver pills by post, or who are in abusive, controlling relationships that make postal delivery unsafe.
Wydrzyńska’s conviction came after the husband of a woman she helped obtain abortion pills found them and reported the case to the police. However, although assisting a woman in obtaining an unlawful abortion is an offence, the woman who had the abortion is not criminally liable.
“The abortomat is not a human being, and the person collecting the pills, in accordance with the regulations, is not breaking the law,” said Wydrzyńska, quoted by news website Wirtualna Polska. WHW and ADT do not collect any personal information from women using the service.
The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that Poland violated the rights of a pregnant woman who had to travel abroad to obtain an abortion after her foetus was diagnosed with a birth defect https://t.co/TgckusMxmJ
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) November 13, 2025
Under the former national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) government, which ruled from 2015 to 2023, the abortion law was tightened and was strictly enforced.
In December 2023, a new, more liberal coalition led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk came to power, promising to liberalise the abortion law. However, it has so far failed to pass any such legislation.
In 2024, a move to decriminalise abortion assistance up to the 12th week of pregnancy was rejected by parliament, after the most conservative element of Tusk’s coalition joined the right-wing opposition in voting against it.
Tusk subsequently admitted that it would be impossible during the current parliament to soften abortion laws. Instead, his government issued guidelines on when and how abortions can be carried out, with the aim of ensuring that doctors and prosecutors “take the women’s side” when making decisions on the issue.
Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.
Main image credit: Martyna Adamska/WHM (under CC BY 4.0)
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.
