The European Court of Human Rights ruled against Poland, ordering compensation of 16,000 euros to a woman denied the right to abort a fetus with abnormalities, as Poland maintains stringent abortion laws.
Abortion is legal in limited cases resulting from sexual assault, incest, or endangering the mother’s life or health within the predominantly Catholic nation.
The court’s decision stemmed from a case of a woman, identified as M.L. from Warsaw, born in 1985, who was unable to undergo a legal abortion after a Down syndrome diagnosis.
Poland’s Constitutional Court had ruled in 2020 that abortion due to fetal anomalies was unconstitutional, effectively enforced on January 27, 2021.
This verdict led to the cancellation of the woman’s scheduled abortion in a Warsaw hospital, compelling her to seek the procedure in the Netherlands.
“The court found that the legislative amendments in question, which had forced her to travel abroad for an abortion at considerable expense and away from her family support network, had to have had a significant psychological impact on her,” it said in a statement.
The European Court highlighted that the composition of Poland’s Constitutional Court, responsible for the ruling, included judges appointed through a flawed procedure.
By a majority decision of five to two, the court found Poland in breach of the “right to respect for private life” outlined in the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights.
While Hungarian and Polish judges dissented, the court directed Poland to compensate the woman with 15,000 euros and cover costs amounting to 1,004 euros.
The ECHR, tasked with adjudicating violations of the European Convention on Human Rights ratified by 46 nations, mandated this ruling.
