New data from Abortion Without Borders: In the three years since Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal ruling, Abortion Without Borders has helped more than 125,000 people in Poland to access safe abortion

22 October 2023

From October 22, 2022 to October 22, 2023:

• Abortion Without Borders helped more than 46,000 people have had access to safe abortion
• Abortion Without Borders helped 1,235 people access a second or third trimester abortion at a foreign clinic
• 496 people who approached Abortion Without Borders disclosed a diagnosis of fetal abnormality (Abortion Without Borders does not ask people to give a reason why they want abortions).
• The total amount of support provided by Abortion Without Borders organinzations is more than PLN 1,675,031 (€375,250), of which PLN 1,013,755 (€227,100) has been allocated for treatments, trips, and stays in a clinic or hospital abroad. The remaining funds are spent on subsidies for abortion pills. More and more people in Poland can not afford the €75 donation requested to order the pills, often because of the increase in the cost of living.
• The Abortion Without Borders hotline received more than 4,864 calls from people seeking information and access to abortion, including 316 refugee women from Ukraine.
• Ciocia Basia in Germany helped 2,000 people from Poland access abortion. 110 travelled to Germany for the procedure while the others terminated their pregnancies with pills
• Ciocia Wienia in Austria helped 85 people access abortions at Austrian abortion clinics, and helped at least 12 people arrange an anonymous birth.
• Ciocia Czesia in Czech Republic helped 3,514 people access abortion in the first and second trimesters of pregnancy.
• Abortion Network Amsterdam (ANA) in the Netherlands helped 354 people access abortion in the second trimester of pregnancy.
• Abortion Support Network in England helped at least 187 people access abortion in the second and third trimesters.
• The remainder of the total 1,235 people who travelled for second or third trimester abortions were helped by more than one Abortion Without Borders organization to terminate pregnancies in Belgium, Spain and France.
• Women Help Women, an international organization that provides postal access to abortion pills, has responded to more than 102,000 messages from Poland. Over the past 12 months, more than 21,034 people in Poland have been helped by Women Help Women.
• On the Women on the Net (Kobiety w Sieci) forum www.maszwycho.net more than 2,374 people have had their abortions with the support of other forum members with experience of abortion with pills. 51 people were in their second trimester of pregnancy, 22 people were taking pills beyond 15 weeks.
• The Abortion Dream Team has accompanied more than 10,976 people self managing their abortions with pills. Of these 10,976, 172 people were in their second trimester of pregnancy who were unable or unwilling to travel to another country to have an abortion.
• In the two clinics in the Netherlands to which we most often send people to, 4 to 7 people from Poland abort their pregnancies each day.
• More and more people from Poland with fetal abnormalities go to France and Belgium, as these countries allow abortion in these cases.
• The youngest people Abortion Without Borders helped was 13 years old. Three people under the age of 15 needed our help getting an abortion.
• The furthest into pregnancy we helped someone terminate was 36 weeks.

In the three years since the Constitutional Tribunal ruling, at least 7 pregnant women have died in hospitals. The latest death we know of is Dorota from Bochnia. When all of Poland learned how she was treated in the hospital, Abortion Without Borders saw a fourfold increase in calls and messages. In June 2023 alone, as many as 23 people currently in Polish hospitals turned to us for help in terminating their pregnancies. Most of these people were unable to travel to the Netherlands due to their health conditions (fetal water outflow, elevated CRP). In these cases, we helped transfer them to another hospital or gave instructions on how to have a safe miscarriage in a hospital setting. Often our assistance required the straightening out of information given by Polish doctors: we advised discontinuing diastolic agents, progesterone or suggested demanding misoprostol. Due to women's heightened level of fear, we needed to extend the hours of our helpline, we received calls and messages throughout the night, and our phone calls with people lasted much longer.

What does access to legal abortion look like in Poland after the pseudo-court ruling?

There is no safe abortion in Polish hospitals. Dutch clinics, French and Belgian clinics have to save the lives of Polish patients and are dealing with increasingly difficult cases, such as ectopic pregnancy, pregnancy nested in a suture after a caesarean, or gestational pregnancy. These are pregnancies that are non-viable and life-threatening, but easily diagnosed in the first ultrasound and should be terminated immediately. Polish patients hear from Polish gynecologists that they should wait and observe. They hear that nothing can be done. Here are some recent examples of people who have contacted Abortion Without Borders:

2023

Milena was in the 14th week of pregnancy. Amniotic fluid began to leak, signifying a miscarriage in progress. Milena came to the hospital in June, when Poland was reeling from the death of Dotora in New Targ. An ultrasound showed that the fetus was alive, but low-set, pressing against the cervix. Milena knew she was in the midst of a miscarriage. She was given an antispasmodic nospa and progesterone by the doctors. When asked by the doctors why they were trying to save the pregnancy by force, she was told that "this is the law." Milena wanted to return home to her son, and we advised Milena not to take the drugs prescribed by the doctors so that the miscarriage process would end as soon as possible. Milena hid her refusal of medication from the medical staff. After three days, the fetus finally died and the doctors agreed to give Milena misoprostol (an abortifacient that induces contractions). However, the dose they gave her was far lower than advised by the World Health Organization recommendations, and Milena was in agony for two more days.

2023

When Wictoria spoke to us she did not know how long she had been pregnant. She admitted that she was 15 years old and had not told any adult that she had not had her period for several weeks. We managed to convince her to talk to her mother, who showed support for Victoria. Victoria and her mom traveled to the Netherlands, where she turned out to be 17 weeks pregnant. Victoria had a safe abortion in a Dutch clinic.

2023

Olena (name changed) and her husband lived in Ukraine, but settled in Poland because they were very concerned about the ongoing war. When they discovered that Olena was pregnant, they were concerned but happy. Unfortunately, the pregnancy was diagnosed with a serious, life-threatening illness. Of course, they were denied treatment in Poland, which came as a shock to them, since abortion is legal in Ukraine. Since Ukraine is not part of the European Union, Olena and her husband had to pay the full cost of an abortion at a hospital in Western Europe. The total cost, including tests, the procedure, travel and accommodation, was almost 9,000 euros.

2023

Alicja (name changed) was 19 weeks pregnant when she observed an outflow of amniotic fluid. She went to the hospital and was admitted to the ward there. After two weeks in the hospital, she called Abortion Without Borders and said she felt the doctors were not taking proper care of her. She did not have a CRP test done for two weeks, and she only had one ultrasound. All she heard from the doctors was that she should lie down and wait. The fluid leaking from her vagina was beginning to change consistency, color and odor. Alicia feared for her life. We wondered if it was responsible to send Alicia to the Netherlands, as we were afraid she might not survive the flight. We decided to reach out to a doctor working in the same region where Alicia was from. We let him know that Alicia would come to see him and urged him to help her as soon as possible. Two days later, Alicia was out of hospital after an induced miscarriage. The abortion was classified in hospital statistics as a stillbirth.

2023

Agnieszka lives in a large Polish city, became pregnant despite using contraception, considered keeping the pregnancy, and ultimately decided that she could not afford to support another child. She ordered abortion pills from a trafficker on the Internet and never received the package. When she was just over 11 weeks pregnant she contacted Ciocia Basia. She travelled to Berlin and had an abortion with partial financial support from Ciocia Basia.

2022

Kamila was 17 weeks pregnant when she found out that her fetus did not have a skull or a brain. Despite this Kamila was denied an abortion in Poland. On the way to the Netherlands, she started bleeding heavily in a gas station restroom and had to be transported to a German hospital. There she gave birth to a stillborn fetus in the emergency room. This pregnancy should have been terminated in Poland.

2022

Marta was 21 weeks pregnant when an amniocentesis indicated a serious abnormality. Due to the condition of the amniotic fluid, Marta was referred to the hospital by her attending physician. In one hospital she was not admitted, and at another, she was admitted on an outpatient basis and discharged after four hours due to "good" blood test results and a "viable" fetus. The only instructions she received was to be checked every 7 days and assurance that the fetus would die soon. Martha was told that she would only be admitted to hospital in case of sudden abdominal pain or a significant deterioration in her health. She told us, “I have to admit that I don't have the strength to to organize more certificates from psychiatrists [she already had one certificate], I don't have the strength to look for a hospital in Poland that will decide to abort this pregnancy. I am afraid for my life. I am trying to find a faster solution so my physical health does not deteriorate. I am already receiving psychiatric treatment." This pregnancy should have been terminated in Poland.

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A week has passed since the recent elections in Poland, and it looks like the Legal and Justice (PiS) party will be ousted from power. If a coalition government is elected, we may see the liberalization of Poland's abortion laws. No matter what happens, now or in the future, Abortion Without Borders will be here to help every person in Poland - or anywhere else in Europe - gain access to abortion, which countries across Europe do not provide. We will also continue to practice and promote innovations such as telemedicine and science-based practices in abortion care.

Media contacts

Natalia Broniarczyk Abortion Dream Team +48 503 098 993

Justyna Wydrzyńska, Kobiety w Sieci, +48 725 892 134 justyna@maszwybor.net

Mara Clarke Supporting Abortions for Everyone (SAFE), +44 7913 353 530, mara@supportingabortions.eu

Dani Anderson, Abortion Support Network, +44 7563 385 199, dani@asn.org.uk

Kinga Jelińska, Women Help Women, +31 645 956 581, kinga@womenhelp.org

About Abortion Without Borders

Abortion Without Borders will help as many people as we can with information, practical support, creative problem solving, and, where required and available, with funding. Abortion Without Borders believes that getting an abortion shouldn’t depend on where someone is born and what passport they carry. Abortion Without Borders welcomes anyone who is for safe, legal, accessible abortion, regardless of age, gender, faith or nationality. Until everyone who needs an abortion can get one locally, we will be here. Helpline for Service Users in Poland: +48 222922597, www.abortion.eu.

Abortion Without Borders groups are Abortion Dream Team (Poland), Abortion Network Amsterdam (the Netherlands), Abortion Support Network (UK), Ciocia Basia (Germany), Ciocia Czesia (Czechia), Ciocia Wienia (Austria), Kobiety w Sieci (Poland), Supporting Abortions for Everyone – SAFE (Pan European), Women Help Women (international).