A 30yo pregnant woman dies in a Polish hospital because treatment was witheld due to their anti-abortion laws. This is almost exactly what happened in Ireland which subsequently galvanised the public to support changing the laws there.

“Following the tightening of the abortion law in Poland due to the 2020 ruling of the constitutional tribunal, there remains only one ground for an abortion which would have applied in this case: endangerment of the life or health of the mother,” Budzowska said. “However, it is hard for the doctors to apply this in practice. They do not know if they make the right decision when this real danger occurs. If they carry out an abortion too early and the prosecutors then decide that there was no danger to the mother, they can face up to three years in prison.”

Currently there is a new piece of legislation before the Polish parliament to increase the penalty to life and equate aiding or abetting an abortion to murder.