Poland: Tusk’s Government Starts Crackdown on Hospitals That Refuse to Kill Babies

There is supposed to be a total ban on abortion in Poland.

But if a psychiatrist says having a baby will make a woman feel sad, then apparently it is illegal to not give her an abortion?

Poland is in the midst of a very serious identity crisis.

Reuters:

Polish authorities have imposed a significant fine on a hospital for denying an abortion to a woman whose pregnancy may have endangered her life, marking a shift in a country with some of the strictest termination rules in Europe.

Poland’s previous nationalist government introduced a near-total ban on abortion in 2021 and embedded conservative social values in law during its eight-year rule.

Abortion issues have sparked mass protests in recent years and women’s rights played a key role in the 2023 election campaign that brought a pro-European coalition government to power.

The 41-year-old woman, who was 14 weeks pregnant, sought an abortion at Pabianice Medical Center.

“The woman presented a certificate from a psychiatrist, which clearly stated that continuing this pregnancy was a threat to her health or life,” Antonina Lewandowska of Federa, the Foundation for Women and Family Planning told Reuters.

Despite this, the hospital requested additional documentation and refused to perform the abortion. She ended up getting it at a different hospital.

The National Health Fund deemed the refusal unlawful and fined the hospital 550,000 zlotys ($136,578). The Medical Center plans to appeal the decision.

The de facto ban introduced in 2021 allowed terminations only in cases of rape, incest, or threats to the mother’s health or life. However, even in these situations, women often faced the “conscience clause,” permitting doctors to refuse abortions on moral grounds.

To address this, Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s government recently introduced a regulation to penalise publicly funded medical centres that refuse legal procedures with fines up to 2% of their funding.

In April, parliament sent four bills to liberalise abortion laws to a bipartisan committee, showing cooperation within Tusk’s coalition despite deep splits over the issue.

The process may extend until a new president is elected next year, with current President Andrzej Duda expected to veto any changes to abortion legislation.

Any Polish right-winger should support an immediate exit of the EU and an alliance with Russia.

There is no way to implement any serious right-wing agenda while America is overseeing the politics of Poland via the EU system.