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Poland, rape victims, and abortion

In Poland, abortion is generally prohibited but the law does allow for them in cases of rape, incest, or danger to the life of the mother.

That does not mean that it is easy to have an abortion under an approved exception.

In 2008, in Poland, a 14-year-old rape victim encountered tremendous trouble terminating her pregnancy. She was turned away from two hospitals due to pro-life pressure on doctors and administrators, and was even separated from her mother and placed in a shelter by police at one point:
In accordance with the law, she got a certificate from the public prosecutor confirming that her pregnancy was as a result of unlawful sexual intercourse.
The girl, named only as "P" went to two different hospitals with her mother in her hometown of Lublin in south-east Poland to try and obtain an abortion.
At one, a Roman Catholic priest attempted to convince her to have the child. Hospital management then issued a press release saying they would not perform the procedure, leading to her case becoming caught up in Poland's ongoing debate about abortion.
The girl then travelled to a hospital in Warsaw, but doctors there said they were under pressure not to go ahead with the procedure. 
The court documents say the pair left the hospital "feeling manipulated and helpless", after which they were harassed by pro-life groups and eventually taken in for several hours of police questioning. 
The authorities then accused the mother of trying to force her daughter into having an abortion and had "P" placed in a juvenile shelter. 
She eventually managed to go ahead with the termination in Gdansk, 500km from her home, after the Ministry of Health intervened in the case.
(Source: BBC News)   
She sued the Polish government in the European Court of Human Rights and won a judgment against them.

P's experience is similar to that of a woman in Argentina, discussed in an earlier post, whose planned abortion-- and status as a victim of rape-- was outed by the mayor of Buenos Aires, which led to pro-life protests and attempts to block her abortion. I don't think that this kind of behavior does the pro-life movement much good, because they are compounding the trauma of rape victims, making themselves look insensitive to the interests and concerns of pregnant women, and making the pro-choice case for therapeutic abortion in difficult situations even more persuasive.

This story and many others like it recently, in addition to some discussions with my students, got me thinking about why abortion in the case of rape generates so much attention and debate. I'll discuss that in my next post.

 Links:

 Article in BBC News online (October 30, 2012): Polish rape victim 'should have had abortion access'
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