Polish doctors charged with manslaughter after fearing terminating pregnancy

The public prosecutor’s office has brought charges against three doctors who did not terminate a 30-year-old patient’s defective pregnancy for fear of breaching the country’s strict abortion laws, which resulted in her death.

Three doctors have been charged with manslaughter and exposure to an imminent danger of loss of life or grievous bodily harm in the woman’s death in September 2021. They face up to five years in prison.

The woman was taken to the facility in Pszczyna after her water broke at 22 weeks of pregnancy. The doctors decided not to perform an abortion for fear of breaching strict Polish abortion laws. The woman went into septic shock and died.

The prosecutor’s office in Katowice now concluded that the doctors acted contrary to medical knowledge.

On 22 October 2020, the Polish Constitutional Tribunal ruled that the provision of the 1993 Act on Conditions of Termination of Pregnancy was unconstitutional, imposing a de facto abortion ban, as the vast majority of legal abortions in Poland were based on these grounds.

The woman’s death led to a wave of protests against the strict anti-abortion law in autumn 2021. At the end of last year, the National Health Fund also inspected a hospital in Pszczyna, according to which there were several irregularities at the hospital. The facility was fined PLN 650,000 (€137,000).

Polish medics point out that Poland’s strict anti-abortion law ties the hands of doctors to whom women with defective foetuses report.

“The shape of the law in Poland, for example, the abortion law, affects the quality of care and patient safety, as well as the doctor’s legal responsibility. The strict criminal law against doctors means that there can be a so-called ‘chilling effect. Lessons should be learnt from every adverse effect of treatment, especially death, reducing the possibility of a similar situation occurring in the future,” said Dr Sebastian Goncerz, vice-president of the medical organisation Porozumienie Rezydentów, in an interview with EURACTIV.pl.

Polish legislation provides for the possibility of abortion in two cases: when a woman’s life is at risk and in the case of an incestuous or rape pregnancy.