Guidelines for Prosecutors
Hospitals in Poland are set to receive new guidelines aimed at improving access to abortion services. These guidelines are being prepared by Health Minister Izabela Leszczyna in collaboration with Justice Minister Adam Bodnar, with the goal of clarifying how the law should be applied in medical settings.
Jakub Gołąb, spokesperson for the Ministry of Health, explained that by the end of August the Health Ministry, working with the Justice Ministry, will provide hospitals with detailed information about the applicable legal provisions governing termination of pregnancy. The objective is to equip medical institutions with a clear framework they can use to align practice with statutory requirements and to ensure that services are accessible to those who qualify under current law.
The intent behind these guidelines is to enable healthcare facilities to apply the law in a way that supports fair and equal treatment for women seeking to exercise their rights in this area.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk stated that there is no likelihood of a legislative coalition attaining a broad, unrestricted form of legal abortion in the current Parliament. He indicated that a different practice would emerge in the prosecutor’s office and in Polish hospitals as a consequence of the political landscape.
In early August, Attorney General Adam Bodnar released guidelines for prosecutors on how to handle cases involving alleged refusals to perform termination of pregnancy and medical abortion when lawfully indicated.
Earlier, on July 12, the Sejm rejected a draft amendment to the Criminal Code aimed at decriminalizing assisted abortion and pregnancy termination with the pregnant woman’s consent up to the twelfth week. The rejection required several rounds of voting, including support from members of the ruling coalition, to advance.
According to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), Poland’s abortion regulations raise concerns about women’s rights. The committee’s review, initiated in 2021, highlighted that the existing law is sufficiently restrictive that some doctors refrain from performing abortions even when legally permitted, sometimes risking a woman’s health and life.
Public statistics show fluctuations in abortion numbers: 423 procedures were performed in hospitals in 2023, 161 in 2022, 107 in 2021, 1,076 in 2020, and 1,110 in 2019. In October 2020, the Constitutional Court ruled that the broader access principle was unconstitutional due to the high risk of severe fetal impairment, a ruling that took effect on 27 January 2021. Since then, abortion has been permissible only when the pregnancy endangers the woman’s life or health or results from a prohibited act such as rape or incest.
These developments reflect ongoing tensions between statutory provisions and clinical practice, and they underscore the ongoing efforts to align legal standards with medical realities and women’s rights while navigating the country’s political dynamics.