Polish activists say new abortion guidelines not good enough

"I remember when only 50 people came to my protests in defense of women's rights in 2016," said Anna Sikora. "After four years, almost 2,000 people took part in the protests. Most of them also took part in the last parliamentary elections as I called on them to do."

Sikora, a mother of two from the central city of Sieradz, is a left-wing activist and local leader of women's protests that have swept Poland and mobilized women against the Catholic-conservative Law and Justice party (PiS), which led the country from 2016 to 2023. Their hopes for changes to the abortion law made the party's electoral defeat possible in fall of 2023.

"And they, especially young women, have the right to be disappointed today," she said.

Polish women concerned for their safety

Poland has had one of the most restrictive abortion laws in Europe since the 1990s. But the situation worsened under the PiS government: Abortions due to severe fetal malformation were banned, and abortion is now legal only if the woman's life or health are at risk, or if the pregnancy resulted from a criminal offense.

The PiS policy, repressive enforcement via the prosecutor's office and the deaths of women who were refused treatment in hospitals all triggered new protests by women concerned about their own safety during pregnancy.

Sikora, who recently gave birth to her second child, recalled the case of Izabela S. from the southern town of Pszczyna. The 30-year-old mother of a 9-year-old girl died of septic shock in the hospital in September 2021. Doctors had refused to terminate her 22-week pregnancy, even though she showed signs of experiencing a miscarriage.

"I'm well into my 30s and was afraid that the scenario of Iza from Pszczyna could happen to me too," said Sikora.

Abortion a key election issue

Abortion was a key topic during the 2023 parliamentary election campaign, and Donald Tusk, head of the centrist Civic Platform, promised Polish women the possibility of legal abortion for pregnancies up to 12 weeks.

It was a risky pledge, and not just because it was opposed by the current president, the PiS-affiliated Andrzej Duda. Tusk's future coalition partner, the conservative Third Way electoral alliance, and in particular its Catholic-conservative Polish People's Party, distanced themselves from the promise during the campaign.

After the election, months of disputes in the new coalition culminated in the most conservative of four drafts to an amendment being put to a final vote in parliament. It provided for the abolition of penalties for abortion assistance. But in mid-July, the parliament rejected the amendment despite the majority of the governing coalition voting in favor. The right-wing opposition were against it, and the governing coalition was just four votes short.

Tusk looks for abortion law work-around

Even before the vote, Tusk reiterated that the safety of Polish women could still be improved even under the current legal situation — by putting a stop to the use of abuse of conscience clauses in hospitals and the unauthorized prosecution of abortions by public prosecutors.

This spring, Tusk instructed Health Minister Izabela Leszczyna and Justice Minister Adam Bodnar, who is also Poland's attorney general, to review their areas of responsibility in these matters. Immediately after July's failed vote on the amendment in parliament, the National Public Prosecutor's Office announced that it would draw up guidelines for abortion investigations. These were published and put into force on August 9.

The new guidelines remind investigators that rumors cannot be used as evidence in proceedings, nor can a woman be accused of terminating her own pregnancy. Most court cases involve the criminal aiding and abetting of abortion instead.

"Although abortion [...] is contrary to the Polish legal framework, the legislator does not have to solve this problem with criminal law alone," read the document signed by Bodnar.

The guidelines were developed after analyzing 590 legal files about abortion cases. Anna Adamiak, spokesperson for the National Public Prosecutor's Office, told DW that the results had revealed a number of irregularities.

New guidelines 'a Band-Aid for a bullet wound'

But legal experts see little hope of real improvements as a result of the new directives. "It won't change anything. It will neither reduce the number of cases nor mitigate their repressiveness," said lawyer Jerzy Podgorski, who has experience with abortion assistance litigation.

Although the document contains positive elements, many issues are not addressed, he said. For example, most abortions in Poland today are induced pharmacologically by women at home with an abortion pill ordered online. "In such a situation, there is no one who has helped the woman to terminate the pregnancy," said Podgorski. Abortion itself is not a criminal offense within the meaning of the law, and this should have been clearly stated in the guidelines, he added.

"There was an opportunity to improve things, but it wasn't taken," said Podgorski.

Activist Anna Sikora agrees the directives are insufficient. "I am disappointed by the attitude of the Polish People's Party, which blocked the reform together with the opposition. And these guidelines from Minister Bodnar are a Band-Aid for a bullet wound," she said. "Should we thank them on our knees? Oh, no."

This article was originally written in German.