Death of the 30 -year -old patient occurred a year after the Constitutional Court, supported by the nationalist government of the time, prohibits the voluntary interruption of pregnancy (IVG) in case of severe fetal malformation
Three Polish doctors were sentenced on Thursday (17) to prison for delaying too much to decide whether an abortion would be carried out on a pregnant woman who died for complications, in a country with one of the most rigid reproductive health laws. The patient, 30 years old and 22 -week pregnant, died of septic shock in September 2021 in a hospital in southern PSZCZYNA. His death occurred a year after the Constitutional Court, supported by the nationalist government of the time, to ban the voluntary interruption of pregnancy (IVG) in case of severe fetal malformation.
The anti-IVG law allows abortions in cases of rape or incest, or when the mother’s life is at risk, but in practice it is so restrictive that doctors are afraid or reluctant to perform them. The three doctors were considered guilty. Two of them were sentenced to more than a year in prison and the third year in prison with suspended sentence, and are banned from exercising the profession for a period of four to six years, he wrote in the X Joalant Budzowska, a family lawyer. The PSZCZYNA District Court did not disclose the reasons for the sentence.
“The doctors, although they should have acted, practically did nothing to save Izabela’s life,” said the lawyer quoted by the Polish PAP news agency. The death of the young woman, who went to the hospital with serious pregnancy -related problems, triggered a wave of demonstrations throughout Poland. According to official data, by 2024 only 896 abortions were held in this country of 38 million inhabitants. However, the network called Aborto Without Borders said it helped 47,000 people access IVG in the same year.
*With information from AFP
Posted by Sarah Paula
