Abortion Without Borders helps 17,000 Polish women with more than 420,000 zloty in funding in the six months after the ruling of Poland’s constitutional tribunal

Mara Clarke joins other activists to talk about the upcoming review of the legislation that legalised abortion (in some circumstances) in Ireland. From 1.25.40

Abortion without Borders, an initiative founded in 2019 to support women in unintended pregnancies in Poland and abroad, says it has helped a total of 17,000 people access abortion, either at home – using pills – or abroad, in clinics, in the first six months after the Polish constitutional court ruling.

For Poles travelling to neighbouring countries such as the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Germany to access a surgical abortion, travel restrictions have made their journeys much more complicated. “Actually Covid-19 is only one more obstacle. It shows what people who don’t want to be pregnant are willing to do,” says Mara Clarke, founder of the…

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Exactly six months ago – on the 22nd October 2020 – the Constitutional Tribunal in Poland ruled that the performing abortion due to foetal defects in Polish hospitals is unconstitutional. Even though the decision came into force only at the end of January 2021, in practice the change worked immediately. Already on…

Clarke said that the number of women who need Abortion Support Network’s help has spiked since the ban’s announcement. “In the first three quarters of last year, it was 40-60 people we helped. In October to December, it rose to 112, and since the start of January, it’s been 91,” she said, adding: “It really…

Elles ont beau habiter trois pays de l’Union européenne – Pologne, Hongrie, Roumanie –, pour elles, avorter en temps de pandémie est devenu encore plus problèmatique qu’avant. En ce 8 mars, Journée internationale des droits des femmes, la crise révèle les failles de l’accès à l’IVG dans l’est de l’Europe.

Mara Clarke, founder of Abortion Support Network, said the “mere premise” of abortion reversal treatment “smacks of paternalism”. She added: “This promotion of a possibly dangerous, unproven procedure is yet another example of how anti-abortion activists and groups peddle medical misinformation to people seeking factual information about abortion care. “We can add this to their…

Six weeks ago, Poland introduced a near-total ban on abortion. Since then, abortion-rights groups say financial donations to their organizations have soared and calls to their helplines have tripled. Surveys show a majority of Poles now oppose the new law while public support for the Polish government has dropped since the ruling was made. So,…

Women’s rights activists and opposition MPs have accused the Polish government of abandoning victims of domestic violence as a bill that would in effect take the country out of a key international convention on violence against women moved through parliament.