Gynecologists ask the ministry when you can stop pregnancy in the event of a woman's health or life threatening

Is it possible to stop pregnancy after the 24th week, when the fetus is potentially to live, but the health or life of a woman is at risk – the Polish Society of Gynecologists and obstetricians asked Minister of Health Izabela Leszczyna “on behalf of all doctors in Poland.”

The management of the Polish Society of Gynecologists and Obstetrics (PTGiP) asked the Ministry of Health to interpret the provisions on termination of pregnancy. The speech is related to the case of a pregnant patient in a severe mental condition described in mid -March by “Gazeta Wyborcza”, who decided to abortion in the 36th week of pregnancy. Earlier, the child was innate bone brittleness.

The judgment of the Constitutional Tribunal of October 2020 does not apply to the termination of pregnancy due to a severe fetal defect. Pregnancy can be interrupted when it arose as a result of a criminal act or in the event of a threat to a woman's health or life.

In the case of the first condition, the legislator explicitly indicates that the termination of pregnancy is possible until its 12th week, in the case of the second there is no specific date to which the procedure is possible.

In a letter to the minister Izabela Leszczyny PTGiP pointed out that “Article 4a in paragraph 2 – relative to the a tilted embryopathological premise – circled the temporary limit of the procedure until the fetus achieved the ability to live independently outside the body of a pregnant woman.”

That is why the PTGiP management board supports the view expressed, for example, in the “medical law system”, according to which, after the fetus achieved the ability to live independently outside the mother's body and after the premise in the form of a threat to the life or health of the mother, the procedure of interrupting pregnancy, however completely legal, cannot, however, rely on the intentional killing of the fetus.

In a letter to the Ministry of Health, specialists conclude that the behavior of the doctor performing the procedure may be assessed in the light of art. 152 § 3 of the Penal Code, according to which, with the consent of a woman, she interrupts her pregnancy when a conceived child has achieved the ability to live independently outside the pregnant woman's body, is subject to the penalty of imprisonment from 6 months to 8 years old.

Prof. Sieroszewski: over the 24th week there is no abortion, and childbirth

– We ask about it on behalf of all doctors in Poland. We ask the minister to determine with the help of lawyers what you can and what not, in the case of pregnancy after the 24th week, when we are dealing with a fetus that can survive alone. We are a state of law and we cannot proceed against the law – said the head of PTGiP prof. Piotr Sieroszewski.

– We expect to be clearly said whether Article 152 Paragraph 3 of the Penal Code refers to the situation of termination of pregnancy after the 24th week and whether the euthanasia of the fetus is legal. Or maybe we will clearly set the border of abortion until the 23rd week, which was binding to the judgment of the Constitutional Tribunal and most consistent with medical logic – said the specialist.

According to prof. Sieroszewski's interruption of very late pregnancy is justified only when fetal defects make the child unable to survive independently. This is, for example, the situation of a shawl, i.e. a fetus that has an uneducated brain part of the head. – The word “abortion” comes from Latin, “abortus” means miscarriage. We have a miscarriage by the 23rd week of pregnancy and thus with abortion. There is no abortion above the 24th week, and childbirth – said prof. Sieroszewski.

Prof. Sieroszewski: A child would be able to function

The President of PTGiP also serves as the manager and the Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics as well as the Pathology Clinic of pregnancy and gynecology at the Medical University of Lodz. This is where a pregnant patient with a child with innate bone brittleness. The specialist consulted her obsciously.

– That child would be able to function, it was the 36th week of pregnancy. It weighed almost two kilograms, it was in good intrauterine condition. A lot of children with bone brittle live well after birth, they are completely intellectually functional. Polish law is prohibited by killing such a child – he said.

He told that he had offered a caesarean section to the patient due to her poor mental state and taking the child with highly specialized pediatric care. The woman did not agree to this and wrote at her own request from the hospital.

Doctor: There is no definition of abortion in Polish law

The patient had the support of organizations that help women exercise the right to abortion. She was hospitalized in Oleśnica, where abortions are performed when other hospitals refuse them.

The procedure for interrupting pregnancy in the 36th week was performed by gynecolor, Dr. Gizela Jagielska, using the method of induction of fetal assistles. It involves giving potassium chloride to his heart in the injection. The doctor estimated that the termination of this pregnancy was lawful.

– medical premises supported this. According to the recommendation of the World Health Organization and the International Federation of Gynecologists and Obstetors of Figo, to which PTGiP belongs, abortion is a process that results in dead delivery, not alive childbirth – said Dr. Jagielska.

Read also: Abortion law in Poland. Dr. Gizela Jagielska comments

– Abortion is not the same as the induction of delivery or the cesarean section of medical indications. The definition of abortion is that we want to get a miscarriage or dead delivery. However, there is no definition of abortion in Polish law – she added.

She noted that she asked the national consultant for perinatology prof. Mirosław Wielgosia for the use of potassium chloride. – In response, I received a letter in which the consultant indicated that the patient should have all possible methods of termination of pregnancy. Therefore, this is how we do and the patient makes a decision – she explained.

At the same time, she emphasized that in her opinion, abortion in the third trimester in the case of healthy pregnancy should not be possible, even if the patient has a psychiatrist's certificate about the threat of her mental health. The matter of abortion in Oleśnica is dealt with by the local District Prosecutor's Office, which initiated an investigation into abortion in violation of law.

The undertaking of such actions was confirmed by a spokeswoman for the District Prosecutor's Office in Wrocław, prosecutor Karolina Stocka-Mycek. Dr. Jagielska said that she did not receive any official information from the prosecutor's office in this case.

Hazel: we stayed with leaky recipes

Minister Izabela Leszczyna in the autumn of 2024 drew attention to the gap in the abortion law that appeared after the judgment of the Constitutional Tribunal of 2020 – the publishing of guidelines regarding pregnancy was evoked by emotions. They appeared because the cruel judgment of the tribunal of Mrs. Przyłębska caused not only the deletion of one premise to interrupt pregnancy, i.e. the defect of the lethal fetus, but along with this provision was deleted a provision specifying which week of pregnancy can be performed – she mentioned.

– So we stayed with leaky recipes. And this is dramatic. Politicians who have made such a decision are responsible for the fact that this question remains unanswered – she said.

– I am talking about warning orthodox politicians. When introducing a new law in such a delicate and sensitive field, you need to know what all its effects can be, because sometimes they can be the opposite from the intended ones. Were it not for that judgment of the so -called tribunal, we would not have these dilemmas today. When this unwanted by no one, but still existed, the doctors at least were sure how to proceed – said the head of MZ.