“It’s going to be fine, you’re going to get out of here. A tender hand caresses Agnieszka’s chin, lying on her hospital bed. Under respiratory assistance, she is livid, and her gaze is elsewhere. The video lasts about twenty seconds, but its content is nonetheless disturbing. Like a cry from the heart, the relatives of the 37-year-old young woman posted these images on social networks on Tuesday evening, accompanied by a text testifying to a nightmare with a tragic ending. “We are devastated, the pain that accompanies us is indescribable, we ask for help, we read. She wanted to live. »
Because on January 25, after a month of agony, Agnieszka died of septic shock, according to the family, leaving three children without their mother. A tragic death which crystallizes, for many, the repercussions of the tightening of the right to abortion in Poland. “This is further proof that the current government [de Droit et justice (PiS), un parti national-conservateur] has blood on his hands,” his family said, outraged.
In mid-December, Agnieszka was admitted to the gynecology department of the provincial hospital in Częstochowa, in southern Poland: pregnant with twins, she suffered from abdominal pain and vomiting. “Through phone calls, we have seen his health deteriorate day by day,” writes the family.
On December 23, one of the two fetuses dies. Passive, the medical profession refuses to intervene. It’s because for a year now, abortion due to fetal malformation has been illegal in Poland. Even if in many cases, the fetus is not viable or the child is condemned to be stillborn. For no less than a week, Agnieszka therefore had to carry the inanimate being within her. In a press release released Wednesday afternoon, the hospital justified this wait-and-see position by the fact that “there was a chance to save the second child”. In vain, since six days later, the second twin will succumb in turn. A priest was even dispatched to the scene to improvise a funeral.
The circumstances surrounding his death are still unclear, and a judicial inquiry has been opened. The story of this Polish woman is strong in symbolism since it coincides almost to the day with the anniversary of the entry into force of the virtual ban on abortion in Poland. It also recalls that of Izabela. The death of the 30-year-old Polish woman, who was also denied an abortion, sent shock waves in November. Behind these dramas, several pro-choice activists see the direct consequence of this “paralyzing effect” which targets doctors. The latter are now liable to three years in prison if they perform an abortion deemed illegal.
200,000 clandestine abortions per year
At the orders of the PiS, the highest judicial body in the country decided, in the fall of 2020: voluntary termination of pregnancy (IVG) in the case of a “serious and irreversible malformation” of the fetus or an “incurable disease or life-threatening” is against the basic law of the land. Prior to this verdict, Poland already had one of the most restrictive abortion laws in Europe. Ninety percent of the approximately 1,000 legal abortions performed annually in the country fell into these categories. As of January 27, 2021, the restriction has the force of law. Abortion is now only possible in the event of rape or incest and in the event of danger to the life or health of the pregnant woman.
Polish women are now turning to feminist associations. Since January 2021, the Abortion Without Borders collective has helped nearly 33,000 women to have an abortion. During the same period, the Polish Federation for Women and Family Planning (Federa) received more than 15,000 calls and 20,000 emails from women asking for help. “It’s three times more work than before the judgment of October 22 [2020] “, assures Antonina Lewandowska, an activist within the federation, who adds that death threats against her and her colleagues have also multiplied. Before the tightening of the law, they were nearly 200,000 to abort each year clandestinely, by medical means, or abroad, according to NGOs.
Associations like Federa must also deal with the deep distress of Polish women abandoned to their fate. Especially for those who, living in precariousness, do not have the means to finance from their pocket a trip abroad to undergo an abortion. “Forcing a woman to carry a pregnancy to term when the fetus has a malformation is torture”, asserts Mme Lewandowska. The phone call she received a few minutes later, which suddenly ended the interview with The duty, testifies to this. On a piece of paper, the activist scribbles: “He is a person who is thinking of committing suicide, I must leave you. »
“They cry, suffer”
For a year, Aleksandra Krasowska has also been at the forefront of this ordeal. Almost every week, this 37-year-old psychiatrist sees devastated patients parading through her office, pregnant with fetuses with serious abnormalities. “Most often they are barely able to speak. They cry, suffer, talk about this pain, this anxiety, ”says the doctor. “Because of the new regulations, they are forced to continue the pregnancy, without being able to decide their fate themselves, and this has consequences for their mental health. They even tell me sometimes that their life is ruined, when they are very young! They wish to fall asleep and never wake up. They have trouble sleeping, they wake up in the middle of the night, have nightmares, panic attacks. Most of them develop eating disorders. »
At the end of the consultations, Mr.me Krasowska then issues them a certificate indicating that their life or health is at risk, which is one of the two remaining conditions for having an abortion. They can then present this document in a public hospital, a document which certifies their right to an abortion. The approach was imitated by several of his colleagues. “Based on my expertise, it seems clear to me that mental health is part of the general health of the human being, and when the first is threatened, it also constitutes a threat to health as a whole”, justifies- she.
But the Ordo Iuris Institute does not see it that way: last year, this fundamentalist Catholic organization close to the PiS sent “legal opinions” to hospitals all over Poland to affirm that “the state of health mental health is not a condition which justifies the authorization of an abortion” in the case of a danger to the life of the mother. And the organization does not want to stop there: its members are campaigning for an outright ban on abortion in Poland, even in cases of rape, even if it means equating abortion with homicide.
“Our goal is to create a pro-life culture in Poland, and legal prohibition is only one way to achieve it”, explains Nikodem Bernaciak, lawyer of the organization, met in the offices of Ordo Iuris in Warsaw. And yet, it is rather the opposite that seems to be happening: polls show growing support for the liberalization of abortion, especially among the younger generation. Sign that, in Catholic Poland, things are perhaps changing. And the prohibitions, to fall.