In Poland, a 37-year-old woman died on Tuesday January 25 after being refused a therapeutic abortion. Pregnant with twins, she had to carry one of the deceased fetuses for a week.
- According to the association Abortion without borders, nearly 32,000 women asked for help in 2020 to have an abortion in Poland.
- Since January 2021, Poland has banned abortion in cases of “serious and irreversible malformation of the fetus or incurable disease that threatens the life of the fetus”.
Poland’s highly restrictive abortion laws have claimed yet another victim. Tuesday, January 25, Agnieszka T., 37, died following long suffering after being refused a therapeutic voluntary termination of pregnancy (IVG).
A refusal of therapeutic termination of pregnancy
A mother of three children, she was pregnant with twins, one of whom died on December 23, 2021. In a press release posted on Facebook and relayed by TV5 Worldthe family of the young woman says that she was less than three months pregnant and that, following violent abdominal pain and vomiting, she had gone to the gynecology department of the hospital in Czestochowa, in the south from the country. “Her complaints had previously been dismissed, with medical staff explaining that it was normal to feel pain in a twin pregnancy”write the relatives of the young woman.
This refusal of support was again opposed to him when the death of one of the two fetuses was noted. Doctors refused to extract her for fear of breaking the country’s anti-abortion law. “They waited for the vital functions of the other twin to stop on their own. Agnieszka carried a dead child in her womb for another seven days. The death of the second of the twins did not occur until December 29 2021”explains the family.
Sepsis likely involved
After weeks of suffering, Agnieszka T. died in hospital, but doctors said they did not know the cause of her death. “We emphasize that the hospital staff took all necessary actions to save the patient”says the establishment in a press release.
For the family, Agnieszka’s death is especially “proof that the current government has blood on its hands”. To prove it, she posted a video of the young woman shortly before her death, where she appears very weak and visibly unable to speak. Her relatives believe she died of sepsis, ie a generalized infection, but was not allowed to see her medical records.
A very restrictive law on abortion
This anti-abortion law has been in force in Poland since January 2021. It prohibits any termination of pregnancy, except in cases of rape and incest, or when the life or health of the mother is considered to be in danger. But, according to human rights activists and NGOs such as Human Rights Watch, the World Organization Against Torture, this law is “devastating” for women because it forces them to carry non-viable pregnancies to term.
The case of Agnieszka T. is not isolated. On September 22, 30-year-old Izabel died of sepsis in a hospital in Pszczyna, southern Poland. Pregnant at 22 weeks, the medical team had refused to carry out an abortion or a caesarean section when the death of the fetus had been confirmed. The hospital has since been fined for “medical malpractice”.
Agnieszka’s death again sparked outrage from the opposition and women’s rights activists. Many people gathered outside the Constitutional Court in Warsaw to protest against the anti-abortion law.
.
