Poles and Romanians Struggle to Access Abortion

Young girls in Poland and Romania were both able to secure abortions recently, but both stories generated firestorms of controversy.

With this post Rewire is delighted to introduce our newest Global Perspectives correspondent, Anna Wilkowska-Landowska, a human rights lawyer and women’s health advocate living in Poland and reporting on Eastern Europe. Welcome, Anna!

Two cases of young girls, age 11 and 14, who got pregnant and were desperately looking for help, totally dependent on the decisions of others, hit headlines in their home countries of Romania and Poland, and beyond, recently. Two
cases, which resulted in controversial discussions and strong attitudes
of various social groups. Two cases attracting lots of public attention. Do they have something
in common?

In the Polish case, everything
seemed to be clear – there was an official statement allowing for termination
of pregnancy as well as parent’s and child’s consent to proceed.
Agata had a right to terminate her pregnancy because it resulted from
an illegal act – a sexual intercourse with a minor (under the age
of 15). Her right was therefore unquestionable. But, even so, obtaining abortion care proved to be
a real problem. Hospitals, which are public institutions, refused to
terminate Agata’s pregnancy. Moreover, a priest appeared in a hospital
trying to persuade Agata not to terminate her pregnancy.

Her
own religious views seemed to be irrelevant. The fact that the hospital is a
public institution, not directly connected with religious authorities,
seemed to be irrelevant. Nobody asked Agata or her mother whether they
wanted to consult with anyone; nobody asked them whether they wanted
to talk to a Catholic priest. That type
of interference constituted an example of an obvious violation of a
person’s right to privacy — a right which is already very problematic in Polish
circumstances, especially with regard to abortion. The case generated
a lively discussion in Poland about abortion and right
to privacy. Anti-abortion campaigners have started a new campaign against
Poland’s Minister of Health, Ewa Kopacz. She intervened in the Agata
case at the last minute to find a hospital willing to perform abortion.
Now campaigners are calling for her to be excommunicated.

In Romania, an 11-year-old
Romanian girl, Florina, was found to be 21 weeks pregnant after being
raped by an uncle. Romanian law permits abortion until the fourteenth week of pregnancy if the pregnancy endangers the mother’s
health or if the fetus has some kind of malformation; abortions can
only be carried out later than 14 weeks to save the life of the mother.
Here, we have a situation where a pregnancy, despite
being a result of an illegal act, cannot be terminated because it is
already beyond the 14-week limit set by law.

But even though it is forbidden by law, and despite strong
pressure from a number of religious groups, a government committee ruled
that the girl could have an abortion in Romania, due to the "exceptional
circumstances" of this case. According to BBC News, the fact that the girl was raped
was a major factor in this decision, as she faced "major risks to
her mental health." The case attracted attention of anti-choice Christian
Orthodox groups, which had urged the family to keep the child, and offered
to raise it in a church institution. But, most importantly, the official
position of the Orthodox Church, to which more than 80 percent of Romanians
belong, said the girl’s pregnancy was "an exceptional situation which must be treated
in an exceptional manner and the family is the only one to make this
decision." The church spokesman said the church considers abortion
a crime, but this belief applies to normal circumstances and not to
incest or rape. That is a very different point of view from that presented
by the church authorities in the Polish case.

Agata and Florina finally terminated
their pregnancies. The end result is the same, but the processes
that had led to the terminations seem to differ considerably in both cases.
Do these cases have something in common? Both of these young women required high
levels of protection during the decision-making process, especially
because of their vulnerability to emotional distress connected with
abortion.