WARSAW - When Polish doctors told Paulina, 29, that her unborn child had no kidneys and would die upon birth, she knew she couldn't go through with the pregnancy.
Until two months ago, women like Paulina still stood a chance of being allowed an abortion in Poland. However, in a ruling that came into effect in January, the constitutional court decided that terminating pregnancies due to fetal abnormalities was no longer legal, effectively imposing a near-total ban on abortions.Watch more in iWantTFC Poland's ruling nationalists supported the move but the country was rocked by weeks of nationwide protests following the Oct.
This makes her one of perhaps only around a dozen women who has managed to get an abortion on such grounds since the ruling came into effect, abortion support groups told Reuters. According to abortion support groups, several women are waiting to find a doctor who is willing to help them, of which there are still very few. This is partly out of fear: Under Polish law, women who undergo an illegal abortion face no penalty, while a doctor can be jailed for up to three years.
"It's important that this isn't a one-person decision ... Then it's easier for all of us, to handle this fear of the prosecutor and of the three years in jail," one of the psychiatrists involved told Reuters.