Polish Court Convicts Rights Activist of Aiding an Abortion by Providing Pills

Ms. Wydrzynska, who has been an abortion rights activist in Poland for the previous 16 years, stated in an interview final summer season with The Occasions that she had all the time been cautious to offer solely directions on shopping for and utilizing abortion medicines, and to not present the tablets themselves.

However in February 2020, she stated within the interview, she acquired a determined message from a lady recognized as Anna who was looking for an abortion. The decision from the girl, who, the courtroom heard, was in an abusive relationship, revived Ms. Wydrzynska’s personal traumatic recollections of a violent relationship and getting an abortion. It prompted her, she stated, to do one thing she had by no means performed earlier than — ship the girl a bundle of tablets.

“I despatched Anna tablets as a result of I discovered that she had skilled violence like me,” Ms. Wydrzynska advised the courtroom in her closing assertion on Tuesday, barely holding again tears.

The girl’s accomplice learn the messages between the 2 girls, the courtroom heard, and reported Ms. Wydrzynska to the police. She was charged with “possession of medication with out authorization with the intention to place them available on the market” and “aiding abortion.” The courtroom in Warsaw discovered Ms. Wydrzynska responsible of aiding abortion by sending misoprostol tablets, an abortion remedy, and sentenced her to 30 hours of group service a month for eight months.

Ordo Iuris, a Polish Catholic authorized group and anti-abortion group that was registered as a civil celebration within the trial, had demanded jail time for Ms. Wydrzynska however had no authorized proper to take action.

A consultant of the group, Magdalena Majkowska, advised the courtroom on Tuesday that Ms. Wydrzynska’s conviction ought to “be thought to be a major step in the direction of actual respect for the best to lifetime of unborn youngsters in Poland.”

Ms. Wydrzynska stated the courtroom’s justification for its determination had not been made public.

“I’m harmless,” she stated. “I say it loudly — the state is in charge. It has failed me, Anna, Iza from Pszczyna, Agnieszka from Częstochowa and thousands and thousands of girls on this nation,” she added, referring to the ladies who died after having been refused abortions.