In a legal challenge brought forth by two MPs of the ruling PiS party, the Polish Constitutional Tribunal declared, on Thursday 22 October, the right of women to have an abortion due to severe foetal defects in Poland unconstitutional (see EUROPE 12585/17).
While more than 90% of legal abortions in the country were performed on this ground, the court's decision, which is expected to lead to the adoption of a bill, signals an almost total ban on abortion in the country. Only abortions in cases of rape, incest or threat to the health and life of the mother - a tiny fraction of those currently performed - will remain permissible.
“Removing the basis for almost all legal abortions in Poland amounts to a ban and violates human rights”, the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Dunja Mijatović, denounced on Twitter, adding that the decision would result in underground or abroad abortions for those who can afford them and “an even greater ordeal for all others”.
A point also raised by the Chair of the European Parliament’s Committee on Women's Rights, Evelyn Regner (S&D, Austria). “A ban leads above all to illegally performed abortions, with massive health risks for women. This was the case 100 years ago and is unfortunately still true today”, she regretted, condemning a “particularly severe attack” on Polish women and their fundamental right to control their bodies.
Her colleague Juan Fernando López Aguilar (S&D, Spain), Chair of the Committee on Civil Liberties, condemned further evidence of the seriousness of the “attacks on the Rule of law, democracy and fundamental rights in Poland”.
He further argued that recent reforms of the judicial system in the country only helped to facilitate this decision. (Original version in French by Agathe Cherki)