Polish women travel abroad for abortions ahead of new law Shaun Walker Central and eastern Europe correspondent, and Anna Koslerova in Prague
Polish women are increasingly being forced to travel abroad to seek abortions even though a court ruling to tighten the country’s already strict laws has not yet coming into force, activists have said.
The constitutional court ruled in October that abortion is illegal even in cases where there are severe foetal abnormalities. Around 1,000 abortions a year, almost all of the country’s legal abortion procedures, are carried out for this reason.
Justyna Wydrzyńska of the NGO Abortion Dream Team, which runs an advice hotline, said the group could already feel the chilling effect of the ruling. Calls to the hotline have increased, including from women who are waiting for the results of tests on foetal abnormalities, and many who are not pregnant yet, but are alarmed by the new ruling.