Justyna Wydrzynska, co-founder of Abortion Dream Team that provides people with information on how to safely terminate their pregnancy, told The Washington Post ahead of the trial that her case was used by the government to set an example and “put the mouth of all the activists in Poland.”
“They will fail because we are not afraid of them. I’m not afraid of the verdict,” she said the night before it was announced.
In her closing statement to the court, Wydrzynska cried and described her own experiences of domestic violence and how she wanted to help others.
The case has particularly resonated in the United States after the overthrow of Roe against Wade in June 2022, and several states are introducing restrictive abortion laws. While the Biden administration has said that abortion pills are authorized as safe and effective for use in all 50 states, providing them to people in the 11 states where abortion is now illegal remains a gray area.
In Texas, for example, a man has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against three women who helped his now ex-wife obtain drugs to terminate her pregnancy.
While abortion is still allowed in Poland in cases of rape, incest or threats to the mother’s life, there is in fact a total ban because it is difficult to find a doctor to perform an abortion under those circumstances to feed.
Rape victims must provide a prosecutor’s certificate for the procedure, and many doctors are afraid to provide care to pregnant people experiencing obstetric emergencies for fear of breaking the law.
Outside the courtroom, there were duel demonstrations in the persistent rain on Tuesday, with anti-abortion groups wearing fetal graphics and the other group supporting Wydrzynska.
Members of her organization pretended to pass abortion pills to each other in front of the media to protest her conviction.
“We will continue to do that because it is the safest way to perform abortions, especially in the first trimester and it saves lives. It’s a very simple act, but it saves lives. And we wanted to show what exactly was done,” said Anna Prus of the Abortion Dream Team outside the courtroom.
Charlotte Fisher, an activist from the Abortion Support Network who traveled from Britain to attend the hearing, said that by going to court, Wydrzynska put the entire system on trial.
“She has exposed both the human need and value of abortion and the cruelty of controlling it in the way that has happened,” she said.
A pregnant woman, 30-year-old Izabela Sajbor, died of septic shock in a Polish hospital in September 2021 after medical staff refused to treat her until her fetus died, her lawyer said. In January 2022, a second woman, known as Agnieszka T., died in the first trimester of a twin pregnancy after doctors, wary of breaking the law, refused to perform an abortion when a fetus’s heartbeat stopped.
However, obtaining abortion pills remains relatively easy, Wydrzynska said. “What is difficult and quite tough is that you have to do everything alone.”
The woman Wydrzynska is accused of giving abortion pills has been identified as Ania. According to a briefing on the case published by the International Planned Parenthood Federation, she contacted Abortion Without Borders in February 2020. She decided to have an abortion, but threats from her husband prevented her from traveling to a clinic in Germany.
As the coronavirus pandemic gained momentum and international mail became less reliable, Wydrzynska deposited the abortion pills on Ania from her home. However, Ania’s husband allegedly found the pills and called the police, who confiscated them. Ania said the stress of the police investigation led her to miscarry.
Wydrzynska’s home was searched and police discovered mifepristone and misoprostol, commonly used abortion drugs, and five months later, in November 2021, she was charged with possession of unauthorized drugs and assisting in an abortion.
Despite the sentence, Wydrzynska describes the attention the case has attracted as a success for abortion rights activism.
“We really succeeded. Because of the case that everyone in this country knows about Abortion Without Borders — that we help not only logistically, but also financially. Everyone knows that you can order abortion pills and that it is easy and legal.”
Throughout the process, she persisted in her efforts to make abortions available to those in Poland who need them, although she admitted that “it was rather difficult to still work and stand trial”.
Activists say the trial is as much a test of Poland’s abortion law as it is of the independence of the judiciary, sparking international concern in recent years.
Since taking power in 2015, Poland’s Law and Justice party has changed the process of appointing, promoting and disciplining judges so that they are beholden to the ruling party.
“The judge of my trial was nominated by the General Prosecutor in 2019 and before that she was a prosecutor, so we know she is somehow connected to the Justice Department,” said Wydrzynska.
