A Polish gynecologist has gone on trial on Thursday for charges related to assisting abortions, which could result in a three-year prison sentence, despite the current government’s efforts to ease restrictions.
The Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s centrist Civic Coalition has promised to liberalize Poland’s strict abortion laws, but has not secured enough parliamentary support.
The trial of gynecologist Maria Kubisa, who is accused of distributing abortion pills to her patients—a charge she denies—began on Thursday in Szczecin, a city in northwest Poland. “The trial has begun. The proceedings are closed to the public,” said Michal Tomala, a spokesman for the Szczecin court.
Kubisa practices in both Szczecin and Prenzlau, a German town approximately 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the Polish-German border, where she has been legally performing abortions. Her case gained attention after Polish special services raided her private practice in Szczecin in January 2023, seizing medical records for around 6,000 patients.
This action drew criticism from women’s rights groups, who condemned the search as a violation of patient rights and doctor-patient confidentiality.
In November, the prosecutor’s office filed “five charges of assisting a pregnant woman in terminating a pregnancy” against Kubisa, an offense that could lead to up to three years in prison. “The terror against women continues,” Kubisa stated to the Gazeta Wyborcza daily in response to the charges.
Abortion has become a contentious issue in Poland since the country’s highest court, aligned with the conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party, imposed a near-total ban on the procedure in October 2020.
Currently, women can only obtain an abortion in hospitals if the pregnancy results from sexual assault or incest, or poses a direct threat to the mother’s life or health. No laws penalize women who perform their own abortions, such as using pills ordered online.
