On Monday, August 26, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) released a statement summarizing three years of investigation into abortion laws in Poland. The findings indicate that Poland's current abortion laws violate women's rights.
UN on the Right to Abortion in Poland
Women in Poland are experiencing severe human rights violations due to restrictive abortion laws, with many being forced to carry unwanted pregnancies to term, seek dangerous underground procedures, or travel abroad for legal abortions
- the UN committee's statement begins. The statement also highlighted that the existing laws may have contributed to the deaths of several pregnant women, deaths that could have been prevented. The full report is available on the CEDAW website.
The committee's Vice-Chair, Genoveva Tisheva, assessed that the situation in Poland constitutes gender-based violence against women. "The law targets women and may amount to torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment" - added CEDAW Vice-Chair Tisheva. Representatives from the UN, Tisheva, and former CEDAW member Lia Nadaria, visited Poland in 2022 after receiving reports from civil organizations regarding access to abortion. The investigation began in 2021, and it was emphasized that during the process, "the commission received full cooperation from the Polish government".
Abortion in Poland Only Permitted in Two Cases
In October 2020, the Constitutional Tribunal ruled that a congenital defect in the fetus is not grounds for terminating a pregnancy, a decision that was previously in line with the law. Since then, Polish regulations allow abortion only in two cases: when the pregnancy results from a criminal act or when it poses a threat to the woman's life or health.
Many doctors refuse to perform abortions for moral or religious reasons, further hindering women's access to safe abortion services. (...) Access to abortion in cases of pregnancies resulting from crimes is severely hampered by a complex and victim-unfriendly bureaucratic process, further exacerbated by powerful anti-abortion lobbying groups, threats, and reports against those assisting women seeking abortions, noted CEDAW. Tisheva concluded that all these factors "create a complex, hostile, and chilling environment in which access to safe abortion is stigmatized and practically impossible".
Women's Strike Following Parliament's Decision to Reject the Decriminalization of Abortion
On July 12, the Polish Parliament rejected a bill that would have decriminalized abortion, meaning those who assisted a woman in terminating her pregnancy would not face punishment. The bill was supported by 215 MPs, while 218 voted against it. Following the vote, opposition MPs erupted in applause and chanted "for life!" In response, women’s rights activists organized a protest. On Tuesday, July 23, they held a strike outside the Parliament as the last session before the summer recess began.
