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On January 27, before midnight, the judgment of the Constitutional Tribunal limiting abortion entered into force and became a law in Poland. Automatically, the provision that allowed abortion due to irreversible and fatal defects of the fetus ceased to apply. What will happen to the women who were planning a pregnancy termination?
- In the fall of 2020, the Constitutional Tribunal ruled that the provision allowing termination of pregnancy when prenatal tests or other medical indications indicate a high probability of severe and irreversible impairment of the fetus or an incurable life-threatening disease is contrary to the constitution
- On January 27, before midnight, the judgment of the Constitutional Tribunal limiting abortion entered into force and became the law in Poland
- In the light of the Constitutional Tribunal’s judgment, abortion is legal when pregnancy poses a threat to the life and health of a woman or when there is a justified suspicion that it is the result of a prohibited act (e.g. rape).
- Head of the Obstetrics Clinic of UCK in Gdańsk: according to the ruling of the Constitutional Tribunal, the Obstetrics Clinic of UCK is obliged to comply with it and suspends admitting patients to terminate pregnancy for embryopathological reasons
- More information on the ongoing protests related to the judgment of the Constitutional Tribunal can be found on the Onet homepage.
Abortion law – what has changed after the judgment of the Constitutional Tribunal?
On Wednesday, January 27, the Constitutional Court published a written justification of its decision on abortion in October last year. After 23 p.m. the judgment was published in the Journal of Laws and from that moment became universally applicable.
Let us recall that in October 2020, the Constitutional Tribunal ruled that the provision allowing termination of pregnancy when prenatal tests or other medical reasons indicate a high probability of severe and irreversible impairment of the fetus or an incurable disease that threatens its life, is against the constitution. It was found that these grounds were not sufficient to allow for taking a person’s life in the prenatal period.
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– After all, even an unquestionable statement of a severe and irreversible impairment of the fetus or an incurable disease that threatens its life does not mean that the affected person will not be able to fully enjoy the rights and freedoms guaranteed by the constitution in the postnatal phase of life – indicated the Constitutional Tribunal.
According to the Tribunal, the assessment of the admissibility of abortion in the case of severe and irreversible impairment of the fetus, and thus the possibility of sacrificing the good lying on the side of the child, requires the indication of an analogous good on the part of the mother, i.e. a situation in which her life and health are at risk.
The Constitutional Tribunal also emphasized that the legislator may not shift the burden of bringing up a severely handicapped or terminally ill child only to the child’s mother, and the obligation to take care of such persons also rests with the authorities and the entire society.
- More on this subject in the judgment of the Constitutional Tribunal
It all means that from 27 January, legal termination of pregnancy is possible when the pregnancy poses a threat to the life and health of a woman or when there is a justified suspicion that it is the result of a prohibited act (e.g. rape). Meanwhile, it is estimated that approx. 90 percent. all legal abortions in Poland were performed in the event of irreversible and fatal fetal defects.
“We suspend admitting patients”
As long as the judgment of October 2020 was not published in the Journal of Laws, it did not affect the actual change of law. Nevertheless, there were signs that some hospitals were refusing abortions on the basis of this ruling. However, there are still facilities that terminated pregnancies. One of them was the University Clinical Center in Gdańsk. This was the case until the recipe was changed. What is the situation today? We received a comment from the head of the Clinic of Obstetrics of UCK, prof. dr hab. Krzysztof Preis, MD, PhD.
— According to the ruling of the Constitutional Tribunal published in the Journal of Laws, the Obstetrics Clinic of UCK is obliged to comply with it and suspends admitting patients in order to terminate pregnancy for embryopathological reasons. (Article 4a, section 1, point 2. The Act of January 7, 1993 on family planning, protection of the human fetus and conditions for the admissibility of termination of pregnancy) – emphasizes the head of the head.
- Polish Society of Gynecologists and Obstetricians on the CT decision
— So far, we have carried out these tasks for all patients, both in the province and in the country, where such procedures were not performed. At the moment, since we already have an unambiguous interpretation of the law, the clinic has to adapt to it – explains prof. Preis, adding: – We will modify this procedure depending on further changes in legal regulations.
Currently, the clinic has no patients who would expect such a procedure. – Prenatal diagnosis is still going on – emphasizes prof. Krzysztof Preis.
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