New Polish abortion laws leave doctors ‘terrified’, sparking a mental health crisis

Women forced into unsafe births should be given 'chance to cry', claim Polish Government

Photo by Mulyadi on Unsplash

Izabela, a 30-year-old wife, mother and daughter was 22 weeks pregnant when she died due to septic shock in a Polish hospital while having an abortion. Doctors always knew that her foetus wouldn’t survive, but abortion wasn’t offered until it was too late.

WhatsApp messages show that Izabela texted her mother that the medical staff, “can’t do anything. They are going to wait until he [the foetus] dies or something else happens.”

Experts claim that Izabela’s case “wasn’t the first and won’t be the last either”

Conservative Polish abortion laws were made yet more restrictive in January 2021, making the health of Polish women secondary to allowing unsafe or unwanted pregnancies to continue. Previously abortion was lawful in three different scenarios: if the mothers’ life is at risk, if rape or incest takes place, or due to foetal abnormalities.

But changes have made the third instance - abortion due to abnormalities in the foetus - illegal. This means mothers are forced to give birth to disabled children which may die soon after birth, putting their own lives at risk in the process. Due to the ambiguous motivations of the government, it is questionable if the new restrictions are even lawful.

Now at the peak of discussions, there is another bill in parliament by an anti-abortion organisation, which proposes to increase the criminalisation of abortion up to lifetime imprisonment for doctors that carry it out. But Poland’s abortion legislation battle includes more challenges. Issues such as mental health, unavailability of financial support and the lack of awareness of medical professionals are combined, and the EU is faced with disagreements over how to cope with Poland as a partner.

Medical Professionals Under Pressure: “The Chilling Effect” in Focus

Izabela’s case could have easily been avoided had doctors not been swayed into inaction by what her family’s lawyer called “a near-total abortion ban.” He described further that “(Izabela’s) doctors, fearful of the consequences of performing a termination of her pregnancy, instead waited for the foetus to die.” 

Dr Krajewska, Reader in Law and a Birmingham Fellow, agree like many experts that the new restrictive abortion law came up in an unexpected time, in the middle of a pandemic, to undermine the problems and to avoid further conflict.

“There was no reason for this decision to be made at this point”, said Krajewska during our interview on 16th of November 2021. Nevertheless, the Polish government couldn’t avoid the masses of protests after announcing the restrictive law, the largest seen by the country since the Solidarity movement, which ultimately gained Poland freedom from the Soviet Union.

Urszula Grycuk, part of the Federation for Women and Family Planning, stated that “Izabela’s case clearly shows that the ruling of the Constitutional Tribunal has had a chilling effect on doctors.” Dr Krajewska adds the ‘chilling effect’ is a phenomenon where the impact of the law is much harder than the law provides for.

“The data doesn’t support the fear that exists”, in fact, “there are no cases of Polish doctors being actually criminalised for abortion.”

Currently, “they might face charges, they might be questioned by the police, and occasionally they might end up in court but they will never get sanctioned.” However, Krajewska made clear that with the current government those actions might change. “We are in a very dynamically changing situation where things could become more restricted easily.” 

After asking how she would act against this problem she answered clearly that the easiest way would be to liberalise the abortion law. However, until then medical professionals will need to be informed of their rights. “This requires education; education of the public, challenging certain behaviour that exists among the medical profession.”

New group of women who seek abortions 

The number of abortions due to abnormalities seems to be bigger than the government expected. In October 2020 only 2% of the legal terminations were due to crime or risk to the mother’s life. That means that all the other legal abortions were due to foetal abnormality. However, the official number of abortions by Polish citizens abroad went down from 310 in 2019 to just 22 abortions in 2020.

The organisation Abortion Without Borders (AWB), founded in December 2019 is supporting women in accessing safe abortion services. AWB states that in their first year since founding they have so far supported over 2000 people in accessing safe abortion pills within Polish borders and financed more than 260 women to go abroad. 

Ultimately, however, the dark numbers recorded by the government are significantly higher. 

“Poland goes where Ireland and Northern Ireland used to be…” - Dr Krajewska

The United Kingdom dealt with abortion law difficulties in the past themselves, it wasn’t until 2019 that Ireland implemented The Northern Ireland (Executive Formation etc) Act 2019. Pressure through the EU on the UK government forced them to align the laws with the rest of the UK. Before, abortion was only legal if the mother’s health was at risk.

Mental Health Issues Feared to Grow Among Poland’s Women

Nonetheless, both pro-choice and anti-abortion proponents agreed that mental health support is not available, and women’s wellbeing should be better supported. 

Agata, a mother who gave birth to a disabled child, told Euronews, that “the Government’s decision to ban abortion is one thing. But this decision must be followed by tremendous support for women who give birth to disabled children. These women are generally left alone.” As she explained further, financial support is one part to consider but a mother’s potential depression and distress is not just terrible for the new-born it can also lead to suicidal thoughts. 

Dr Anna Parzynska, a gynaecologist in Poland stated in an interview with Euronews that it is “completely unethical to force a woman to deliver, knowing that the day of birth will also be the day of the baby’s death.” 

Wądołowska, the managing editor of Notes from Poland, reported that the Polish justice Ministry published a support plan for women who are, due to the new law, forced to give birth even if the child may die soon after. The questionable suggestions included giving ‘personal room’ and the ‘chance to have a cry.’

The founder of the Doctors for Women Initiative, Aleksandra Krasowska, a psychiatrist commented that “the Polish mental health system was overburdened even before these new patients appeared.” 

In other words, the level of neglect for support will rise even more.

How will Europe act in regards to Poland’s corruption and the new anti-abortion proposal? 

Now there is a new bill in Polish Parliament, a legislative proposal, brought by the anti-abortion organisation – The Right to Life Foundation.

It is labelled as a civic initiative, which means many ordinary people have signed the project. It proposes the increase of criminalisation of abortions and sanctions that would mean lifetime imprisonment for those involved. As the Amnesty International explained the bill also suggests to “legally define an embryo as a ‘child’ from the moment of conception.” 

This would mean that as soon as the mother gets pregnant the embryo in her womb counts as a child with all the human rights. This would result in a total abortion ban. 

As Dr Krajewska, stated the EU should have been much more outspoken about the situation in Poland. “Poland was seen as a hopeful case (after 1989), a successful case of political and socio-economic transformation, but certain issues like women rights were swept under the carpet and they haven’t been addressed properly. They have been ignored for many decades and we are seeing the results now.” The Dr K. stated the problem Europe faces with Poland is that the EU has “tried to influence and change the judicial institutions in Poland. They basically tried to take control over the judicial system.” 

After asking how the EU could have intervened earlier, Krajewska argued that “Women’s reproductive rights should be considered an integral part of the discussion of the rule of law, but it has not been seen as such.

The EU hasn’t acted to protect women’s reproductive rights until very recently and even now there have been more political statements then any legal actions.” 

It is important to note that health law is only a supporting competence of the EU which, in other words means that their ability to act on abortion law issues is relatively limited. Krajewska stated that the EU can get involved as soon as they consider “abortion as a question of democracy, as a question of citizenship, as a question of a rule of law in a democratic state”. 

The EU reacted with discussions around how to proceed with Poland. There are disagreements about sanctions and possible negotiations. Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission President stated: “Our utmost priority is to ensure the rights of Polish citizens are protected and that Polish citizens enjoy the benefits granted by the membership of the European Union.” 

The International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) said “we see the attacks to democracy and the European Union in Warsaw and the answers of the European Parliament has been loud and clear. The EP is the voice of European citizens and they clearly stated that this is not what Europeans can tolerate.”

Poland’s judicial system has faced immense criticism, with the European Court of Justice ruling the judge selection process to be unlawful. This could impact the constitutionality of recent laws, including restrictions on abortion.

With the EU bearing down on the nation, some have made the case for Poland to leave altogether, drawing parallels with the UK’s ‘Brexit’. As Jacek Karnowski, the editor-in-chief of the pro-government Sieci Weekly, told the BBC “Polexit was ‘unimaginable and unrealistic.’ Although…‘there is a possibility that Poland will be pushed out of the EU because we can already see that we are being pushed out.’” 

As Krajewska said “We know what happened to the UK. The decision to leave is not always a rational decision of the government or the people.  In the British case, the EU got tired of the UK’s constant opposition to different initiatives, so eventually they were not as determined to keep the UK in.” 

If Poland was no longer under the pressure of the EU it would have a massive impact on the already undemocratically discriminated sex, ethnic, and gender minorities. As Krajewska said, “it [‘Polexit’] would have devastating consequences for women rights … women would have little control over their bodies and their rights.” 

Polish women are facing a battle on three fronts: a mental health crisis, a lack of government support, and restrictions that remove their autonomy over their own bodies. The EU is now forced to act, to support the polish citizens, and enable them to benefit from the EU membership that, in theory, acts as a constitutional safety net.

However, where exactly the restrictions will end seems unpredictable at this point. As Krajewska said, “A couple of years ago this (current state) seemed absolutely impossible.

Now I am not so sure about anything anymore.”