Sawt Falasteen - Polish court orders retrial in hot-button abortion case

Justyna Wydrzynska was sentenced to community service in 2023 in the first such case concerning an activist in the EU country, which has a near-total abortion ban and outlaws abortion assistance.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk's centrist governing party has so far not garnered enough support in parliament to push through its pre-election pledge to ease these laws.

But an appeals court on Thursday overturned "the contested judgment in its entirety", judge Rafal Kaniok said, citing doubts over the independence of the presiding judge who delivered the sentence.

Supporters of Wydrzynska -- including from her Abortion Dream Team nonprofit, which helps women carry out abortions -- gathered in the court.

"For me, this is not a victory," Wydrzynska told AFP after the ruling.

"The only outcome I would consider a victory today would have been if this court had said: 'yes, you are innocent'," she added.

A handful of anti-abortion activists were also present outside the building, reciting Catholic prayers.

Human rights organisation Amnesty International Poland hailed the ruling, saying a retrial will mean the court can "dismiss the case and send a clear message that human rights cannot be violated".

"Let this be a step towards a more just Poland," the nonprofit said on X.

- 'Stop persecuting us' -

Currently, women can get an abortion in hospital only if the pregnancy results from sexual assault or incest or poses a direct threat to the life or health of the mother.

Abortion assistance is punishable by up to three years in jail.

A network of abortion rights groups, Abortion Without Borders, said however that it faces an "overwhelming number of enquiries" from people seeking abortion support in Poland or abroad.

In 2024, the network "supported 47,000 people in accessing abortion care," it said in a report released last month.

"Abortion in Poland is a daily reality," it added, estimating that up to 150,000 abortions are carried out each year in the predominantly Catholic country.

But according to official numbers, only around 780 of those were performed in Polish hospitals in the first 10 months of 2024.

In August, the prime minister conceded there was "simply no majority" to deliver on his party's pledge to allow abortion until the 12th week of pregnancy in the current parliamentary term.

One of his senior lawmakers announced last month that work on relaxing the rules, some of Europe's strictest, would resume only after the presidential election scheduled for May.

"Let's be honest: if Donald Tusk wanted it, abortion would be legal," Abortion Dream Team activist Natalia Broniarczyk said, adding that the organisation receives around 130 calls each day from women seeking advice on abortion.

"We will happily continue doing this job. Just stop persecuting us," she said.

Four bills to loosen the abortion law have been debated in a parliamentary committee, but even if they got the green light from lawmakers, Poland's conservative President Andrzej Duda has indicated he will veto them.

B.AbuZeid--SF-PST