Polish gynaecologist charged with assisting in abortions
A woman walks past a billboard with the lettering 'Where are these children?' in Warsaw, on August 5, 2022. The billboards, put up in recent weeks by a Catholic foundation, are hard to miss: large and plastered all over Poland, they show two little blonde girls in immaculate white posing in a wheat field -- along with the alarmist caption, "Where are these children?" Falling birth rate statistics displayed alongside in the form of a pictogram claim that the average Polish family had five children in the 1950s, down to three in the 80s and 1.5 today. Photo AFP, Wojtek Radwanski
Central Europe
A gynaecologist in Poland has been charged with helping women with getting an abortion. But according to the woman, the authorities are trying to “intimidate her.”
The prosecutors accuse gynaecologist Maria Kubisa of providing women with abortion pills without checking whether that was allowed by Polish strict abortion law, Notes from Poland writes. Kubisa herself denies all allegations. She can be punished with up to three years in jail.
The gynaecologist states that she does not sell abortion pills and neither helps with any abortions in Poland, she told OKO.press earlier. “Everything I do is legal.”
Since 2020, Kubisa has not treated any pregnant women in Poland anymore, she says. That year, the Constitutional Court in Poland prohibited abortions almost altogether, with a few exceptions.
However, she still offers abortion to Polish women in a clinic just over the border in the German city of Brandenburg, she acknowledged to Die Welt in August. Kubisa also works at the German clinic, and her practices are legal under German law.
However, the prosecutors in Poland disagree and charge Kubisa with helping five women obtaining an abortion, Notes from Poland writes. According to them, the allegations are backed by evidence collected during a search of Kubisa's private clinic in the Polish city of Szczecin. This evidence shows that the gynaecologist sold abortion pills to her patients without conducting an interview or medical examination or preparing medical documentation from the visit, the prosecutors say. By not checking the reasons why women want to terminate their pregnancy, Kubisa risks up to three years in jail. Women who ended their pregnancies will not be prosecuted.
Other legal cases
Maria Kubisa is not the first one to be charged for assisting in an abortion.
Last October, a man was prosecuted because he helped his partner with terminating her pregnancy. The police had received a notification that the couple had aborted their unborn baby and buried the foetus in the backyard, CNE.news wrote earlier.
In March, a Polish activist faced charges for providing a woman with abortion pills. The activist was sentenced to eight months of community service for her crime, CNE.news wrote at the time. She justified her action by pointing out that her patient was in an abusive relationship.
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