EU Parliament: “ensuring full access to safe, legal and free abortion services to all women” in Poland.

(from Brussels) “Last September, a 30-year-old Polish woman died of septic shock because her doctors, due to the restrictions imposed on legal abortion in Poland, did not give her therapeutic abortion and waited instead for the foetus to die”. This is written in an official release, issued by the European Parliament, which has been convened on a plenary meeting in Brussels. In a resolution passed earlier today, the MPs ask the Polish government to make sure “no more women” in Poland “will lose their lives because of such restrictive law”. The bill of law was passed with 373 votes for, 124 against and 55 abstentions. “The MPs – the release goes on – reiterate their firm condemnation of the ruling passed by the illegitimate Constitutional Court on 22nd October 2020, imposing a virtually absolute ban on abortion and endangering women’s health and life”. They call the Polish government “to quickly and fully ensure access to safe, legal and free abortion services to all women”. “Because of such oppressive legislation, women are forced to resort to unsafe forms of abortion, to go abroad to have an abortion, or to carry their babies to term against their will, even in the event of severe or fatal birth defects”. So, the European Parliament calls all the EU countries “to more effectively cooperate to make cross-border access to abortion services easier, for instance by giving Polish woman access to free, safe abortion in other national health systems”.

Valentina Bombelli