Tireless fight for access to safe abortion / Medicus Mundi Switzerland

Poland’s abortion legislation has been among the most restrictive in Europe. Abortions are only permitted on two grounds: when the pregnancy endangers the life or health of the pregnant woman and when it is the result of a rape or incest. While the mere possession or self-management of abortion-inducing medicines is not a crime in Poland, any person or doctor who helps pregnant women to obtain an abortion outside the limited grounds permitted by law is liable to sanctions of up to three-years in prison. The anti-abortion movement is growing and there is a need for better protection of people who are defending the right to abortion and providing essential services. They are increasingly being stigmatized, intimidated, attacked and subjected to unjust prosecutions, making their work difficult and dangerous to carry out.

In this episode, Carine Weiss talks to Justyna Wydrzyńska about the right to abortion and her conviction for aiding in helping a woman get an abortion in 2021, about the fears, stigma and misunderstandings around medical induced abortion pills in the first trimester of a pregnancy.

Justyna Wydrzyńska is a polish abortion rights activist and former chemist. In 2006, after struggling alone to find accurate information to end her forth pregnancy safely, she decided to help other women to have access to a safe abortion and launched “Kobiety w Sieci” (Women on the Net), an online website providing information about self-induced medical abortions. In 2016, with three other women she co-founded “Abortion Dream Team”, an activist collective that campaigns against abortion stigma in Poland and offers trainings and non-judgmental advice on how to get a safe abortion.

In 2019 she co-founded Abortion Without Borders, an initiative connecting Polish women with abortion providers in other European countries. In February 2020, amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, she got contacted by a desperate pregnant woman living with an abusive partner. Justyna sent her her own abortion pills, but the woman‘s partner intercepted the package and called the police. In November 2021, the prosecutor’s office charged Justyna with helping with an abortion. In March 2023, she was found guilty and sentenced to eight months of community service, a dangerous precedent in Europe. Despite her conviction, Justyna Wydrzyńska continues her human rights work, which recently honored her with a place among the three finalists for the Václav Havel Human Rights Prize of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.

Communiqué de presse de Amnesty International: Davantage de Protection pour les Défenseur·e·x·s du Droit à L'Avortement

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Tireless fight for access to safe abortion

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