Back in 2020, Polish activist Justyna Wydrzynska helped a domestic violence victim by obtaining abortion pills in Poland when her husband was preventing her from traveling overseas to get the abortion care she requested. Recently, the Polish human rights activist and co-founder of the Abortion Dream Team was sentenced to eight months of community service, but could potentially face up to three years in prison.
Poland exiles all forms of abortion unless the pregnancy was due to rape or incest. “I am innocent. This state is guilty and has failed me… and millions of women in this country,” Wydrzynska said in an article by USA today.
Although Poland gives impregnated people the right to abortion if the instance was rape or incest, the process of finding out if this has happened can be long and dehumanizing. When receiving a rape kit, you are getting poked, photographed, and swabbed in spots where the victim has been violated. This process can take hours, and results can take weeks or even months to receive. For people who don’t know they’re pregnant, sometimes the results don’t make it back in time and the timeframe to have an abortion has already passed or the baby is already born.
For an incest test, the DNA of the family members needs to be taken to see if their chromosomes match up. The retrieval of the data can take up to three to five days, but if the family members are unavailable or refuse, the process takes a lot longer.
This whole situation is extreme. We shouldn’t be looking at whether or not Wydrzynska should be incarcerated or not. We should be looking at how these laws are putting those impregnated via rape or incest in harm’s way.
Poland doesn’t allow anyone who is experiencing domestic violence to have an abortion because it doesn’t classify as rape. I believe a domestic violence victim should be considered within Poland’s abortion law. Although the victim may not face the act of rape, they are still facing abuse within the relationship. A domestic violence victim, in many instances, is having a child with someone who they can’t get away from because it may put them in more danger if they leave. They do not want to give birth to a baby and raise them with someone who is abusive, so why should they?
As someone who is openly pro-choice, I don’t see why these laws are placed where health resources are “frowned upon.” Having a child takes time, patience, and money, and if you have to work a full-time job with no one to watch the child, that’s a problem. People would rather see someone struggle to take care of a child and themselves than have access to an abortion and free them from that future if they don’t want it.
Everybody should be able to have a child when they are ready, not when the law tells them they are.
Wydrzynska said that she doesn’t regret helping the women, and if I was in her place, I wouldn’t either.
Reilly Sanborn can be contacted
at rsanborn@kscequinox.com
