Poland has violated the European Convention on Human Rights in relation to a pregnant woman who was denied access to legal abortion due to fetal Down syndrome as a result of the reform of Polish law. The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg found that the woman was exposed to suffering and serious psychological consequences.
The Court ruled that Poland must pay the complainant an amount of PLN 15,000. EUR for non-material damage and EUR 1,004 for material damage.
During the pregnancy of the Polish woman, born in 1985, doctors confirmed Down syndrome in the fetus at the 14th week. In 2021, a planned abortion in a Warsaw hospital was canceled due to legal reforms following the Constitutional Court ruling.
Justification of the verdict
Due to the impossibility of performing an abortion in Poland, the complainant had to go to a private clinic abroad, in the Netherlands, to undergo the procedure, which exposed her to high costs, cut her off from family support in Poland and exposed her to serious psychological consequences, the ECHR emphasizes.
The Court ruled that Poland art. 8 of the Convention, on the right to respect for private and family life.
The Court also unanimously declared inadmissible the case of 927 women of childbearing age who declared that they were potential victims of a violation of their right to terminate their pregnancies, even in the case of fetal abnormalities.
tkwl/PAP
Source: wPolityce