A Polish activist has been charged with serving to a girl get an abortion within the first trial of its variety in Europe.
Justyna Wydrzyńska is accused of offering abortion tablets to a pregnant lady, who stated she was a sufferer of home violence in 2020.
Wydrzyńska -- from the Polish group Aborcyjny Dream Workforce (ADT) -- faces as much as three years in jail if discovered responsible.
Amnesty Worldwide say it's the first case in Europe the place a pro-abortion activist has been prosecuted for offering abortion tablets.
The worldwide NGO has referred to as for the costs towards Wydrzyńska to be dropped and for abortion entry to be “totally decriminalised" in Poland.
Poland has one of many strictest legal guidelines on abortion in Europe regardless of widespread anger from ladies's rights activists.
Final 12 months, the nation's constitutional courtroom agreed with the conservative authorities's stance that pregnancies couldn't be ended the place the foetus is malformed.
Pregnancies can now solely be terminated the place there's a menace to the mom’s well being or life or if it resulted from a prison act, similar to rape or incest.
The courtroom's resolution led to widespread protests throughout Poland, in addition to criticism from different European Union member states.
No less than two Polish ladies are additionally reported to have died because the new regulation was launched after medical doctors have been allegedly pressured to place the lifetime of the foetus earlier than the mom.
Wydrzyńska formally faces fees for "offering abortion help" beneath a 1997 regulation and "inserting medicine in the marketplace with out authorisation".
In 2020, she was allegedly contacted by a girl -- in her twelfth week of being pregnant -- who wished an abortion.
In line with ADT, the pregnant lady had beforehand been prevented from visiting an abortion clinic in neighbouring Germany by her husband.
Prosecutors say that her husband later referred to as the police whereas she was at dwelling, ready for the abortion tablets to reach.
The ADT group says it has assisted round 100 ladies day-after-day who need an abortion by referring them to organisations based mostly overseas.
However Wydrzyńska says she had been motivated to personally assist the girl as a result of her personal private expertise, a number of years beforehand.
"I hope that this trial will mark a turning level within the Polish authorized system and that in a couple of years abortion tablets can be offered in petrol stations subsequent to condoms," the activist stated, after the primary listening to on Friday.
Dozens of pro-abortion demonstrators gathered outdoors the courtroom constructing to assist Wydrzynska, whereas anti-abortion protesters additionally gathered.
The trial has been adjourned till 14 July.
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