Women’s Access to Justice in Poland

This Report examines the barriers hampering women’s access to justice in cases of denial of the right to lawful abortion in Poland. It starts with the Introduction, which provides the background information about the KARAT’s initiative on access to justice and presents its objectives. The following chapter Access to lawful abortion – a taboo in Poland elaborates on the impact of the restricted access to termination of pregnancy on women’s lives and depicts the scale of violations in this area. In the Methodology the information on research tools that have been used to examine the barriers that hamper access to lawful abortion services, as well as access to justice has been provided. The subsequent analysis focuses on the legislation related to abortion, and it follows with the analysis of women’s experiences in struggling to access the lawful termination of pregnancy. This part of the Report depicts the real stories of women with the objective to identify the existing barriers and women’s needs to overcome them. The final chapter present recommendations for the Government aimed at eliminating the barriers hampering women’s access to justice.