In Poland, the opposition denounces the forthcoming entry into force of what is dubbed “the pregnancy register”. The Minister of Health has given the green light for doctors to register on a digital medical platform if a patient is pregnant in a country where the right to abortion is virtually prohibited.
With our correspondent in Warsaw, Sarah Bakaloglou
Adam Niedzielski, the Minister of Health, wanted to be reassuring about this “pregnancy register” by indicating that other information would also be digitized and centralized, including patient allergies or their blood groups. Adam Niedzielski also said he followed European recommendations.
A “tool of repression” for a parliamentarian
But in a country where the right to abortion has been hardened under the current government, which has also restricted access to the morning after pill, this announcement has provoked many reactions. Starting with some opposition MPs. One, Liberal MP Kamila Gasiuk-Pihowicz, called the registry “ tool of repression […] to be able to persecute and control Polish women “.
Polityka Kaczyńskiego doprowadziła do dramatycznego spadku urodzeń. Rejestr ciąż to kolejny krok w kierunku pogłębienia tej tendencji. W połączeniu z restrykcyjnym prawem aborcyjnym rejestr będzie barykadą zniechęcają kobiety do zachodzenia w ciążę. To pewne.
—Kamila Gasiuk-Pihowicz (@Gasiuk_Pihowicz) June 6, 2022
The Foundation for Women and Family Planning (Federa) called not to panic, while remaining vigilant. ” It is easy to imagine a situation in which a doctor asks what happened to the pregnancy, seeing a patient who is no longer pregnant, when she was supposed to be. Federa commented. But the association repeats it: in any case, women who abort in Poland by themselves cannot be prosecuted. It is the doctors who help them or any other person who incurs up to three years in prison.
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