Polish court rejects claim against police who made woman strip after taking abortion pills

A court has rejected a claim by a woman who accused police of abusing their powers during a controversial and widely reported case last year in which they intervened after she had taken abortion pills. Parts of the interaction – in which she was ordered to strip – were caught on film and broadcast by the media.

In its justification for exonerating the police – obtained by newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza – the court argued that the woman had “an interest in portraying herself as a victim of police brutality”, perhaps in order to obtain compensation, and that she had sought to publicise the case in the media.

The court’s decision has been described as “scandalous” by a lawyer representing the woman, who is named only as Joanna (and is pictured above). Joanna herself says she feels like she is in “some Kafkaesque labyrinth”.

The incident in question made headlines last year after a report by broadcaster TVN in which Joanna outlined the police’s actions towards her and claimed she had been mistreated.

Officers had intervened following a telephone conversation Joanna had had with her psychiatrist in which she admitted to having suicidal thoughts and taking abortion pills a few days earlier. Joanna’s doctor alerted the emergency services and the police about a suspected suicide attempt.

According to the woman, however, the police officers who arrived at her home and subsequently took her to a hospital for examination questioned her mainly about the abortion pills and not her health or the possible suicide attempt.

Officers reportedly ordered her to undress, do squats and cough, even though she was still bleeding. They also seized the woman’s computer and phone.

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Although Poland has some of Europe’s strictest abortion laws, terminating one’s own pregnancy is not a crime. However, helping a woman terminate her pregnancy – for example, by providing abortion pills – is a crime punishable by up to three years in prison.

The police defended their actions and released parts of recordings from the emergency call relating to Joanna’s case. They argued it was necessary for them to check if someone had assisted the woman in terminating her pregnancy.

Subsequently, Joanna filed two legal cases against the police, one accusing them of abusing their authority and the other demanding 100,000 zloty (€23,367) in compensation for wrongful detention.

In the first of the cases, prosecutors refused to initiate an investigation into Joanna’s accusation. She challenged their decision, but her appeal has now been rejected by the district court in Kraków.

In a copy of the justification for that decision obtained by Gazeta Wyborcza, judge Monika Prokopiuk wrote that “the injured party has a legal interest in presenting herself as a victim of police brutality, if only to obtain compensation”.

She added that Joanna’s psychiatric treatment means her testimony should be approached “with a great deal of caution”. As further justification, the judge pointed to the fact that Joanna had given interviews to TVN and a newspaper.

The manner in which she sought to publicise the case suggests that she was seeking to appear in the media, “perhaps to appear in a commercial”, wrote the judge.

Finally, the justification also states that the police’s order for Joanna to undress should not have bothered her because she has published photos on her social media profiles that allowed “everyone, not just the two policewomen present at the questioning, to view her body”.

Gazeta Wyborcza notes that the judge’s findings differ completely to those of the state commissioner for patients’ rights, Bartłomiej Chmielowiec, who found that “the right to privacy and respect for Joanna’s intimacy and dignity was not respected and properly implemented” during the incident.

Joanna’s lawyer, Kamila Ferenc, a prominent activist for women’s reproductive rights, told the newspaper that the court’s justification was “absolutely scandalous”.

“I won’t even mention how much it offends me to assume that I’m stupid enough to have an abortion for attention, and that police violence only brought me this attention,” Joanna herself told Gazeta Wyborcza.

“[But] even if I liked the publicity, was interested in attention – so what? Am I not bound by the law then? Are the police allowed to do more with people like that?” she added. “I lost trust in the state a long time ago. I feel like I am in some Kafkaesque labyrinth.”

Ferenc revealed, however, that she had recently learned that prosecutors have decided to reopen the case and examine again whether police exceeded their authority.

Prosecutors are now under the authority of the new, more liberal government that took power in December last year, replacing the conservative Law and Justice (PiS) government under which prosecutors had previously refused to investigate Joanna’s claim.

The new government has promised to soften Poland’s abortion laws. However, it has so far been unable to do so due to disagreements between members of the ruling coalition over how far to liberalise the system.

Meanwhile, a hearing on Joanna’s second claim – for compensation over wrongful detention – will be heard by the same court in Kraków on Tuesday next week.

Main image credit: Dawid Zuchowicz / Agencja Wyborcza.pl

Alicja Ptak

Alicja Ptak is senior editor at Notes from Poland and a multimedia journalist. She previously worked for Reuters.