A landmark court hearing in Warsaw today shows just how poisonous Poland’s right-wing government has become in its assault on women’s rights.
Activist Justyna Wydrzyńska is essentially accused of helping a domestic violence victim get health care.
Specifically, she allegedly helped a woman in an abusive relationship access pills for an abortion in 2020. Wydrzyńska is being prosecuted for assisting someone to have an abortion and, even more bizarrely, illegally “marketing” medication without authorization.
This is the first known prosecution in Europe of an abortion activist for allegedly providing abortion pills. (My colleague is reporting from outside the courthouse in Warsaw today.)
The prosecution of Wydrzyńska is part of the government’s sustained attack on sexual and reproductive rights. It’s clearly designed to intimidate people and further curb Poland’s already extremely restricted access to abortion.
In the face of government hostility toward their health, women and girls in Poland depend on civil society initiatives like Wydrzyńska’s organization, Abortion Dream Team, to provide access to science-based sexual and reproductive care and information.
The Polish government can pursue a case like this with such venom in part because the ruling party has undermined the independence of the courts. In 2020, Poland’s politically compromised Constitutional Tribunal virtually eliminated legal abortion in the country, and the initial hearing of Wydrzyńska’s case in April showed how unfair courts have become generally.
Representatives from human rights groups were barred from even entering the courtroom in April. At the same time, the judge permitted the ultra-conservative organization Ordo Iuris to defend the “rights of the fetus,” even though a fetus has no legal standing under Polish law.
The hostile environment the ruling party has created in Poland may be hard for some people outside the country to imagine, but consider one final detail. This whole case began when the domestic violence survivor’s husband reported his wife’s intent to terminate her pregnancy to police.
In short, Poland’s ruling party has created a poisonous system that sides with the abuser over the abused.
