Thousands of people have demonstrated across Poland in protest against abortion law after the death of a pregnant woman who, according to her family, could have been saved by this procedure. In 2020, a ruling of the Polish Constitutional Court made abortion illegal in practically all cases.
The trigger for this new wave of protests against the abortion law has been the death of a 30-year-old woman, Izabela. Although the young woman died on September 22, the news was made public by the family just a week ago.
Isabella andShe came back 22 weeks pregnant in a hospital of Pszczyna (southern Poland), where doctors ruled that the fetus could not survive when presenting serious anomalies and having lost all the amniotic fluid. Despite this, according to the family’s lawyer, they refused to perform an abortion while the fetus’s heart was still beating, which ended up causing the woman’s death from septic shock shortly after it was removed by cesarean section.
Protesters have carried banners with slogans such as “I could be alive”, “Women’s rights, human rights”, as well as photos of the deceased.
The former president of the European Council participates in the mobilization
The protest held in Warsaw was joined by, among others, the mayor of the capital Rafal Trzaskowski and the head of the opposition party Civic Platform and former President of the European Council, Donald Tusk.
“A doctor who wants to save a woman’s life has to wonder if Mr. Ziobro will put him in jail,” Tusk had warned this Friday, referring to the Minister of Justice, of the conservative Law and Justice Party (PiS )
After the case came to light a week ago, the Katowice (south) regional prosecutor’s office An investigation was opened, the doctors involved in the case have been suspended and the Ministry of Health has ordered an audit to determine if the hospital was negligent.
Since the controversial Supreme Court ruling, which became effective earlier this year, abortion is only allowed in Poland if the pregnancy is the result of rape or if the mother’s life is in danger, although some ultra-Catholic groups want to eliminate even these assumptions.
Mario Twitchell is an accomplished author and journalist, known for his insightful and thought-provoking writing on a wide range of topics including general and opinion. He currently works as a writer at 247 news agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the industry.
