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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.
A Polish medical court has decided to suspend three doctors from practice after finding medical negligence in their treatment of a pregnant woman who in September 2021 died in hospital due to septic shock. Her death sparked mass protests in Poland.
The woman, who has been named only as Izabela, was brought to the hospital in Pszczyna after a premature rupture of membranes in the 22nd week of her pregnancy. Doctors confirmed that the foetus lacked amniotic fluid and severe foetal defects were detected.
During her hospitalisation, Izabela wrote messages to her family informing them that doctors had decided to “refrain from emptying the womb until the foetus died” and linking that decision with the near-total ban on abortion introduced in Poland in 2020, which made abortions due to birth defects illegal.
"Thanks to the abortion law, there's nothing they can do," a woman texted her mother shortly before she died in hospital after doctors waited for the death of her foetus, which had birth defects.
Many blame her death on Poland’s near-total abortion ban https://t.co/5hQss5UVTI
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) November 4, 2021
An inspection of the hospital in 2021 found that Izabela’s death had been caused by “wrong decisions” made by doctors and noted “numerous irregularities”. The hospital was fined 650,000 zloty (€138,000) as a result.
Now the district medical court in Katowice has found that the first of the three doctors who cared for the patient did not order adequate antibiotic therapy, despite indications. He also failed to order tests that would have detected the development of sepsis.
The court also found that the second doctor did not order adequate tests and decided not to terminate the pregnancy despite signs of the development of sepsis.
Regarding the third doctor, the court found that he decided not to immediately terminate the pregnancy when faced with the patient in septic shock in the delivery room.
Okręgowy Sąd Lekarski w uzasadnieniu nie wspomniał o ewentualnym wpływie orzeczenia TK z 22.10.2020 r. w sprawie aborcji na przebieg leczenia i śmierć p. Izabeli z Pszczyny. Pamiętajmy jednak, że ten sąd nie jest od usprawiedliwiania czy szukania przyczyn, dla których lekarze https://t.co/ItTs8MIlzu
— Jolanta Budzowska (@JolBudzowska) March 3, 2025
“In all cases, the medical court assessed that the doctors had disregarded the basic regulations of the medical profession,” Jolanta Budzowska, the lawyer representing Izabela’s family, told the Polish Press Agency (PAP).
She wrote on X that the impact of the near-total ban on abortion was not mentioned in the court’s explanation of its ruling.
The court decided to sanction the doctors by suspending one of them from practice for five years and the other two for two years. The court’s decision is not final and can be appealed at the supreme medical court in Warsaw.
Budzowska is already planning an appeal requesting that one of the doctors be permanently stripped of his right to practice, reports the tabloid Fakt.
Izabela’s death prompted mass demonstrations in Poland with many protestors, including the woman’s family and lawyer, blaming the tragedy on the then-new near-total abortion ban.
However, many conservatives, including figures from the national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) insisted it was a tragic case of medical malpractice unrelated to the ban, which they noted still allows abortions if a pregnancy threatens the mother’s life or health.
In September 2022, prosecutors brought charges against the doctors who treated Izabela. They were accused of professional negligence that contributed to her death. The criminal trial began in mid-September 2024 before the district court in Pszczyna and is currently being held in private.
All of the doctors have been charged with exposing the patient to imminent danger of death through failing to exercise their duty of care, while the third doctor has also been charged with negligent involuntary manslaughter. Both crimes carry a prison sentence of up to five years.
According to the prosecution, none of the accused have pleaded guilty nor did they refer to the effects of the near-total abortion ban on their practice, reports broadcaster Polsat News.
Two embarrassing blows in the last week – on abortion and the detention of an opposition MP – have left Tusk’s government facing its first serious crisis, raising questions over the unity and competence of the ruling coalition, writes @danieltilles1 https://t.co/aWQigjd8Q2
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) July 18, 2024
Under Poland’s current abortion law – which is stricter than in any European country other than Malta – abortion is only allowed in one of two circumstances: if pregnancy results from a criminal act (such as rape or incest); or if it threatens the life or health of the mother.
After Poland’s current near-total abortion ban was introduced in 2021, the number of legal terminationfs fell dramatically. Only 107 were carried out that year (most of them before the ban went into force in late January) compared to over 1,000 in 2020.
Izabela’s death is one of a number suffered by pregnant women in hospitals since 2021, a phenomenon that activists have blamed on the tightening of the abortion law.
The current more liberal government has pledged to liberalise the abortion law. However, it has so far failed to do so, as it has been unable to find agreement between more conservative and liberal elements of the ruling camp on what form the new abortion law should take.
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: Dawid Żuchowicz / Agencja Wyborcza.pl
Agata Pyka is an assistant editor at Notes from Poland. She is a journalist and a political communication student at the University of Amsterdam. She specialises in Polish and European politics as well as investigative journalism and has previously written for Euractiv and The European Correspondent.
