Restrictive laws, frightening environment, immediate danger… UN investigation into abortion rights in Poland

Investigation in cooperation with the government

She traveled to Poland in 2022, together with a former member of the committee, Lia Nadaria, for the investigation, with which the government cooperated throughout the procedure, according to the press release.

The committee denounces the criminalization of assistance provided to women seeking abortions. It also found that "the already restrictive legal framework is weakened by serious flaws in its implementation", such that "doctors are often reluctant to perform abortions abortions, even legal ones, for fear of criminal liability, and often delay the procedure until the woman's life is in immediate danger”.

“A hostile environment”

Cedaw points out that many doctors refuse to perform abortions for moral or religious reasons. He claims that access to abortion in cases of pregnancy resulting from a crime is severely hampered by the bureaucratic system, against the backdrop of “powerful anti-abortion lobby groups, threats and denunciations against those who help women obtain abortions”.

“Together, these factors create a complex, hostile and frightening environment in which access to safe abortion is stigmatized and virtually impossible”, Ms. Tisheva concluded.

Poland, Europe's strictest country

Poland's ruling coalition has pledged to liberalize abortion laws, which are among the strictest in Europe. They include punishing assisted abortion with up to three years in prison.

The last attempt to relax the rules failed in July, when lawmakers voted 218 to 215 to reject a bill that would have removed the provision banning assisted abortion.