On Tuesday 29 April, Manon Aubry, Chair of The Left group in the European Parliament, and Mathilde Panot, French MP for La France insoumise - a radical left-wing party - travelled to Warsaw (Poland) to deliver 300 abortion and emergency pills to the AboTak “clinic”. The day after their action, Agence Europe met the two elected representatives in Warsaw, alongside the co-founder of the Polish association Abortion Dream Team (ADT), Justyna Wydrzyńska. In 2023, she became the first woman in the EU to be convicted of helping another woman have an abortion.
The AboTak centre - the first of its kind in the country - was launched by Abortion Dream Team (ADT) and operates outside the legal framework in a state where abortion is highly restricted.
Meeting a public health need. The AboTak centre was inaugurated just a few metres from the Polish Parliament on 8 March, International Women’s Day.
Designed as a space where people are received, listened to and provided with information, it offers support for medical abortion when the official structures are often inaccessible. The founders hope to be able to offer surgical abortions there too, if medical staff agree, and in the meantime are offering support abroad.
European solidarity. “After the struggle in France to constitutionalise the right to abortion, we felt it was essential to organise concrete solidarity”, said Manon Aubry, who continued: “Today, in several European countries, women die because they were unable to have a safe abortion. The European Union cannot continue to turn a blind eye to this reality”.
“Our action today therefore consists of providing practical help to women so that they can obtain abortion pills without having to travel, but also of advancing the abortion agenda in the context of the presidential election in Poland. A European citizens’ initiative (see EUROPE 13389/40) calling on the European Commission to guarantee effective access to abortion throughout the Union, has just passed the one million signature mark”, added the MEP, who also praised the role of the French Planning Familial in organising the delivery.
For Justyna Wydrzyńska, this transnational support is “a form of recognition of our fight, and a very important political and human solidarity”.
“Necessary civil disobedience”. “For almost 20 years, we have been helping women to have abortions. It’s a necessary form of disobedience, because the laws don’t protect pregnant people, they put them at risk”, says Ms Wydrzyńska.
Her team receives urgent requests on a daily basis. “Every day, women call us. They cannot wait for Parliament to debate or legislate”, she insists.
Asked about the possibility of change after the presidential election, Justyna Wydrzyńska is sceptical: “Even with a democratic government, two of the coalition parties are currently opposed to legalising abortion. They promised to protect us during the campaign, but today they are doing nothing”.
Despite Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s campaign promises to guarantee safe, legal and free access to abortion within his first 100 days in office, no major legislative changes have been adopted. The decision of the Constitutional Court in 2020 (see EUROPE 13511/13), which made abortion illegal in cases of foetal malformation, remains in force. A proposal to decriminalise abortion assistance was even rejected by Parliament in 2024.
And while the candidate from the ranks of Donald Tusk’s centre-right liberal Civic Platform party, Rafał Trzaskowski, says he has backed a bill in favour of legalisation, Justyna Wydrzyńska qualifies: “When they discuss between the three coalition parties, we know that the bill will not be in our favour, and even if they have a perfect bill, there still won’t be enough seats”.
Action at European level. According to Manon Aubry, the fight must also be waged at European level: “We need a universal guarantee of the right to abortion in the European Union, by enshrining it in the Charter of Fundamental Rights”.
This is a demand that MEPs have made on several occasions, but which has come up against the need for unanimity among the Member States (see EUROPE 13389/15).
Considering that the Polish Presidency of the EU Council was a missed opportunity to address this issue, the MEP also regrets the Commission’s retreat: “There isn’t even a dedicated Commissioner for women’s rights any more. Ursula von der Leyen replied to me that ‘the essential work had been done’. European women will appreciate this”. (Original version in French by Nithya Paquiry)