Doctors and organizations assisting with abortion face constant harassment in Poland. The U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women concluded last year that women in Poland are facing severe human rights violations due to restrictive abortion laws, with many forced to carry unwanted pregnancies to term, seek unsafe clandestine procedures or travel abroad for legal abortions.
The case of Justyna Wydrzyńska, an activist who was sentenced to eight months of community service for facilitating an abortion in 2023, made international headlines. And in April, Polish MEP Grzegorz Braun stormed a hospital in Poland and threatened a doctor with a citizen’s arrest for performing a legal late-term abortion.
“We also can expect that in the future, there will be more prosecution and more attacks, because this kind of voice gets legitimized in the presidential seat,” Jelinska said.
Amid ongoing challenges, the EU should step up and show solidarity to women in Poland, Left MEP Manon Aubry said. Last month, Aubry was one of the MEPs that traveled to Poland to deliver abortion pills to the Abotak center. She said she is planning to do it again soon.
“It’s part of the role of the European Union,” she said. “When fundamental values of the European Union are under threat — like it is the case in Poland when it comes to women’s rights or to rule of law in general — then it’s our responsibility to stand up and act in solidarity.”
The My Voice, My Choice campaign wants the European Commission to establish a fund to help women who can’t access abortion care in their own country to travel to another with more liberal abortion laws. It successfully gathered the 1 million signatures needed to be considered by the Commission earlier this year.
The Polish election shows why the campaign is “more essential than ever,” Kovač said. “When the political system fails us, it is movements like ours that must lead the fight.”
