Poland was refused an abortion of a 14-year-old girl who was raped by her uncle

Doctors referred to the fact that termination of pregnancy is contrary to their beliefs

A 14-year-old girl with intellectual violations who lives in a small city in a plot of voivodship (located in the north-east of Poland, on the border with Belarus and Lithuania), refused to have an abortion in local hospitals-despite the fact that the girl became pregnant after her own uncle raped her. The Family Fund and Family (Feder), a Polish non -governmental organization that defends the reproductive rights of women, spoke about this story on January 20.

According to Feder, the injured girl did not say to anyone about the rape and did not realize that she became pregnant. When her aunt found out about what had happened, she tried to help her have an abortion. In Poland, despite the almost complete ban on abortion, in case of rape, you can legally interrupt pregnancy at a period of up to 12 weeks. To do this, you need a certificate from the prosecutor's office that with a high degree of probability, pregnancy occurred as a result of a crime.

Aunt the girl received the necessary certificate, but even with her in local hospitals they refused to carry out an abortion. There they referred to a reservation about conscience, which allows the doctor to refuse to terminate the pregnancy, if this contradicts his beliefs. “Aunt [Girls] told us that they treated them cruelly and inhumanly:“ Not here, go away. We don’t know where [you can terminate pregnancy]. This is not our business ”,” the answers of the health workers described in Feder.

After that, the aunt turned to Feder. The organization helped the injured girl to an abortion in Warsaw. The procedure passed without complications, and the girl has already returned home.

Feder called on the authorities of Poland to immediately cancel the reservation about conscience - it allows health workers to refuse to abandon pregnancy, even if it is legally. According to the law, only individual specialists can apply a reservation about conscience, and not entire organizations, and in case of its use, the patient should be sent to another doctor or to another institution where they will have an abortion. But in practice - including in the case of a girl who was sexualized by violence - this does not happen, the organization stated:

This leads to the fact that women who need an abortion have to go to Poland from the hospital to the hospital in search of a doctor, look for help abroad, act independently. We are talking about women and girls whose health is in the danger who have experienced violence that are afraid of unwanted pregnancy. In the public health system, there can be no place for a reservation about conscience. The worldview of doctors should not be higher than the health, safety and dignity of women.

Polish officials confirmed that in the story with the girl, apparently, the law was violated. The Ministry of Health began the audit, and the head of the department Adam Nedzelsky said : “Here our answer is unequivocal - this behavior is unacceptable.” The Commissioner for Human Rights in Poland Martin Vyuntsek asked the Ministry of Health to clarify the rules for applying a reservation about conscience so that the patients were given an abortion in the procedure, when they refused the procedure. The intention to make amendments regarding the reservation also stated in the opposition civil coalition . They noted that Polish doctors care less about patients, because "they are afraid of the prosecutor, priest and politicians from the [ruling conservative party]" Law and Justice "."

In Poland, one of the most stringent anti -abortion legislation in Europe is in effect. From 1993 to 2021, it was allowed to have an abortion if a woman was raped, if pregnancy threatened her health or life, as well as if the fetus had an incurable pathology. It was the pathology of the fetus that was the basis for the absolute majority of abortions in the country, but from the end of January 2021, abortion for this reason in Poland is prohibited. So decided the Constitutional Court - despite mass protests . Since then, the country has received the resonance of the history of several women who died, according to relatives, due to the fact that doctors were hesitated with termination of pregnancy (medical workers are punished for illegal abortion in Poland, and not a woman who applied for termination of pregnancy).

According to Feder, in 2019, 1110 abortions were carried out in Polish hospitals, mainly due to the incurable fetal pathology. However, in 2021, after the decision of the Constitutional Court entered into force, only 32 abortions were made in hospitals throughout the country-less than ever since the introduction of restrictions on abortion in 1993. According to Feder, in fact, there are much more abortions, but hospitals fear checks and do not indicate them in statistics, calling, for example, miscarriages. In addition, women terminate the pregnancy without addressing Polish doctors - a drug or abroad (in both cases , specialized human rights groups are ready to help). It is assumed that in reality residents of Poland make 100 thousand abortions annually.