Wednesday, November 9, 2011

antichoice implementation in Poland

The Polish Government has published its annual report on realisation of Law on family planning, protection of the human fetus and conditions for legal abortion.. As you may know, the Polish law is one of the strictest in Europe and only allows abortion in case of danger to women's life or health, serious fetal impairment or pregnancy being the result of criminal act. Apart from restrictive regulations, Polish women face various problems regarding access to abortion in very few cases when it is legal. We come across numerous examples of women who are denied abortion even if they are legally entitled to the service. The main problem is lack of medical definition of what "serious danger to health or life" is. Furthermore, it is difficult to obtain referral for prenatal examination. Recently, a doctor denied abortion arguing that Down syndrome can not be interpreted as a serious fetal impairment. This situation lead to the development of back alley abortions' market and abortion tourism. This negative outcomes of lack of access to abortion are ignored by the Government. The newest reprot shows the failure of the Law on family planning, protection of the human fetus and conditions for legal abortion. According to the governmental report, there were 641 abortions in Poland in 2010 (103 more than in 2009). Merely 27 were performed on the grounds of pregnancy causing risk to women's health or life. 614 abortion were provided because of the results of prenatal tests. Finally, there weren't any terminations of pregnancies being a result of criminal act.

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