‘Justyna Wydrzyńska is thought to be the first human rights activist in Europe to be prosecuted for providing abortion pills. She must be the last’ -  Monica Costa Riba

Ahead of tomorrow’s appeal hearing of Justyna Wydrzyńska, an activist convicted in 2023 for helping a woman in an abusive relationship access a safe abortion, Monica Costa Riba, Amnesty International’s Women’s Rights Senior Campaigner, said: 

“Justyna Wydrzyńska should have never been prosecuted, let alone convicted - no one should be criminalised for helping pregnant people access essential health care.  

“Her prosecution exposed the lengths that the Polish authorities will go to in order to shut down legitimate activism and curtail the ability of women and girls to exercise their reproductive rights. Her unjust conviction must be overturned and the dangerous precedent it sets, reversed.

“Justyna Wydrzyńska is thought to be the first human rights activist in Europe to be prosecuted for providing abortion pills. She must be the last.”  

Helping a woman in need

In 2020 Justyna Wydrzyńska – a doula and one of the founders of the civil society organisation Abortion Dream Team – helped a pregnant woman who said she had been suffering from domestic violence to access abortion pills. 

On 22 November 2021, she was charged with “helping with an abortion” and “possession of medicines without authorisation for the purpose of introducing them into the market”.

In March 2023, she was convicted of abetting an abortion and was sentenced to eight months of community service. 

Poland has one of the most restrictive abortion laws in Europe. Abortion is only legal when the health or the life of the pregnant person is at risk or when the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest. Performing your own abortion or possession of abortion pills for a self-managed abortion is not a crime under Polish law, but any person or doctor who helps pregnant people with an abortion outside the two permitted grounds in the law may face up to three years in prison.