On November 13, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled against Poland for violating a woman’s right to privacy. This woman had traveled abroad to have an abortion after discovering that her fetus had Down syndrome. The judges made this decision unanimously.
In 2020, the Polish Constitutional Tribunal declared it unconstitutional to have an abortion based solely on a diagnosis of Down syndrome. Before this ruling, Polish law from 1993 allowed abortions if there was a strong chance of severe and irreversible disability or incurable disease threatening the fetus’s life. However, after the tribunal’s decision, abortions were still allowed if the pregnancy posed a danger to the woman’s life or health, or in cases of rape or incest.
The ruling from the Constitutional Tribunal was only published on January 27, 2021, which is what the ECHR criticized.
The woman involved was 15 weeks pregnant when the tribunal made its ruling, and medical tests confirmed her fetus had trisomy 18 (a severe genetic condition). Fearing that the ruling would be published before she could have a legal abortion, she went to the Netherlands and had the procedure done at a private clinic.
She then took her case to the ECHR, arguing that her rights under Article 3 (prohibition of inhuman and degrading treatment) and Article 8 (right to respect for private and family life) of the European Convention on Human Rights were violated. She claimed that the restrictions caused her significant emotional suffering and that they were not legally justified.
The ECHR noted that the uncertainty between the tribunal’s ruling and its publication created a situation that interfered with her rights. They acknowledged that this prolonged uncertainty affected her ability to make decisions about her pregnancy. However, they did not find that the tribunal’s restrictions amounted to inhumane treatment.
As a result of the ruling, Poland was ordered to pay the woman €1,495 for material damage and €15,000 for moral damage.
This case raises questions about the influence of European laws on individual countries’ abortion laws. In 2018, the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities stated that laws allowing abortion based on disability violate international conventions. Meanwhile, the European Parliament’s Women’s Rights Committee has supported creating a fund to help women access abortions abroad, particularly targeting restrictive laws like those in Poland. However, the ECHR has previously stated that Article 8 does not grant a right to abortion, emphasizing that regulations surrounding abortion do not necessarily interfere with a woman’s right to privacy.
The ongoing debate about abortion laws highlights the tension between national sovereignty and European human rights standards.
This article has been translated and simplified by artificial intelligence from a French article “Avortement pour cause de trisomie : la CEDH condamne la Pologne pour violation du « droit à la vie privée »”
It may therefore contain errors. The French version is the reference version..