Polish well being authorities stated Monday a lady who died within the fifth month of being pregnant had her affected person rights violated. The affected person died of sepsis in hospital after going into early labor. Hospital employees instructed the affected person to lie with their legs up and didn’t carry out a therapeutic abortion as a result of presence of a fetal heartbeat.
Polish Minister of Well being, Adam Niedzielski, acknowledged, “[E]very lady on this nation has the correct to terminate her being pregnant within the occasion of a risk to her well being or life.” To remove the confusion, Niedzielski introduced a group to develop pointers “associated to the termination of being pregnant.” The group will include medical and psychological well being consultants. Niedzielski made a degree to say, “girls on this group will play a big position.”
Beneath present regulation, Poland has a near-total ban on abortion. The Constitutional Courtroom dominated in 2020 that abortion in instances of extreme and irreversible fetal abnormalities was unconstitutional. Nonetheless, an abortion to save lots of the lifetime of the pregnant lady remains to be authorized. Whatever the regulation, many sufferers and well being care suppliers stay uncertain what abortions are authorized.
The affected person’s dying comes throughout a wave of huge protests towards the nation’s Law and Justice (PIS) governing get together. PIS payments itself as a national-conservative and Christian democratic political get together. They’ve superior insurance policies criticized as infringements on girls’s rights, LGBTQ+ rights and rights of immigrants and asylum seekers.
