Protest marches were held in many Polish cities, including the capital Warsaw, the central city of Łódź, the southern city of Kraków, Gdańsk in the north, Poznań in the west, Szczecin in the northwest, and Lublin in the east, news outlets reported.
“Not one woman more,” the demonstrators chanted.
The Nationwide Women’s Strike (OSK), the women’s rights organisation which organised the rallies, said people were protesting against “the killing and torture of women that takes place in maternity wards.”
The organisation said that, "under the current ban on abortion, women are being forced to carry unwanted pregnancies and give unwanted births.”
It condemned the country's strict abortion laws and "the cynicism of doctors,” private broadcaster Polsat News reported.
The OSK wrote on Facebook: “Dorota from Nowy Targ is dead because the Polish anti-abortion law kills, turning doctors into political lackeys, instead of healthcare experts. Dorota is dead because doctors haven’t rebelled [against abortion law]."
'Abortion is legal when a woman’s life or health is at risk’: conservative leader
Meanwhile, Poland's conservative leader Jarosław Kaczyński said on Wednesday that, despite a toughening of abortion regulations in 2020, abortion in Poland “remains legal when a woman’s life or health is in danger,” the PAP news agency reported.
Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said ahead of Wednesday's demonstrations that childbirth-related deaths happened also under the previous centrist government and called on protesters “not to politicise the issue.”
The prime minister added that "it is legal to terminate a pregnancy if the woman’s life or health was at risk," the PAP news agency reported.
'The life and health of a woman must be protected': PM
Morawiecki told reporters: “The life and health of women, including mental health, come first ... Polish law is unequivocal about this. The life and health of a woman must be protected.”
Pregnant woman dies
Wednesday’s protests came in the wake of the much-publicised case of a 33-year-old pregnant woman who died of sepsis last month after spending three days in hospital in the southern town of Nowy Targ.
The woman, named only as Dorota, had been admitted to hospital after her waters broke in the fifth month of pregnancy, news outlets reported.
The woman died of septic shock, even though several hours earlier a scan showed that the foetus was dead, according to the hospital records, the PAP news agency reported.
Dorota’s husband said that nobody at the hospital had informed them of the danger and that his wife's life could have been saved by inducing a miscarriage because the child had very low chances of survival, the Reuters news agency reported.
Health minister announces more detailed abortion guidelines
On Monday, Health Minister Adam Niedzielski announced he had appointed “a panel of 13 experts, including seven female experts” to draw up more detailed abortion guidelines for medical centres.
The health minister told reporters that “medical errors” were to blame for Dorota’s death and that the new panel would work to prevent such mistakes from happening again.
Niedzielski stated: "Every woman whose health or life is in danger at any time during her pregnancy has the right to terminate it."
The Polish prime minister said on Tuesday: “Abortion is legal whenever there is any danger whatsoever to a woman’s life or health. Her life and health must be protected. A woman’s life and health is a priority.”
Meanwhile, Poland’s Ombudsman for Patients’ Rights, Bartłomiej Chmielowiec, told reporters that "in Dorota’s case, the patient's rights have been violated, the right to provide health services in accordance with current medical knowledge has been violated, the patient's right to having services provided with due diligence has been violated," the PAP news agency reported.
Prosecutors have launched an investigation into the circumstances of the woman’s death, according to news outlets.
Abortion is allowed in Poland only when the pregnancy endangers the life or health of the woman or if it is a result of "a forbidden act," such as rape or incest.
In March, Polish lawmakers rejected a bill that would have restricted the country's abortion law by imposing prison terms on those aiding terminations.
In December 2021, Polish MPs voted down a proposal that would have outlawed abortion by defining it as homicide.
The country's abortion regulations were last modified after its Constitutional Tribunal in October 2020 ruled that abortion due to serious fetal defects and severe illnesses was unconstitutional.
The ruling prompted a wave of protests across the country.
(pm/gs)
Source: PAP, Polsat News, wp.pl
