Maria Kubisa still doesn’t know exactly what she is supposed to have done wrong. But she knows it would take months to get all of her medical records back in order.
On January 9th, the gynecologist has consultation hours in her practice in Szczecin. The waiting room is full when six police officers arrive. They send the patients home and confiscate all written files, as well as two notebooks with electronic patient data and a smartphone. “I couldn’t work anymore, couldn’t receive any laboratory results, my patients couldn’t reach me,” says Kubisa.
The officers are from the Anti-Corruption Agency (CBA). But the fact that they are taking patient files with them does not mean that the doctor and her lawyer believe that it is a tax matter. Kubisa can only think of one reason. Namely, that you want to put pressure on them. She sees the culprits in those who are also responsible for the strict Polish abortion law. So in the right-wing government led by the PiS.
Many doctors are afraid
Kubisa insists that she does not perform abortions. “Since the last tightening of the law, I no longer look after pregnant women,” she says. Many doctors are afraid and no longer dare to prescribe medication or keep it in practice. Everything could be interpreted in such a way that you wanted to help with a demolition.
Since October 2020, abortions have only been permitted in Poland if the woman has been raped or her life is in danger. Malformations in the fetus are no longer a reason, even if they are so severe that the child dies after birth. The case of a 30-year-old from Pszczyny, who died of sepsis in the hospital because the doctors treated her too late, showed that doctors even hesitate to abort the mother for fear of prosecution if the mother-to-be is unwell. The woman already had a little daughter of elementary school age. Her death in autumn 2021 gave rise to nationwide demonstrations under the slogan “Not a single one more”.
Kubisa has been running her practice in Stettin since 1996, she studied in Germany, today she works half a week in a clinic in Prenzlau in Brandenburg, the other half week in Stettin. Does she send patients who want to terminate a pregnancy to Germany? “No, that’s also punishable. It would be a consultation.” But, she adds, “apparently someone doesn’t like the fact that I also work in Germany”.
In response to inquiries from the Polish media, the public prosecutor’s office in Szczecin has meanwhile announced that it is about the suspicion of assisting in an abortion. But according to Kubisa’s lawyer, Rafał Gawęcki, there have been no official investigations or charges. He had never come across a case like this. Under no circumstances, he says, would it be legal to take all patient files with you, it would then have to be a single one. “It’s actually completely impossible.”
The EU Commission should intervene
Because of the strict regulations in Poland, activists are trying to organize help themselves. The Aborcyjny Dream Team, for example, advises women online and on the phone and organizes abortion drugs from abroad. The termination of one’s own pregnancy is not punishable, according to Polish law only anyone who helps a woman to do so is punishable.
A trial that will set a precedent is due to end this Tuesday in Warsaw. The 47-year-old Justyna Wydrzyńska, founder of the Aborcyjny Dream Team, is accused. She is accused of complicity because she sent a woman abortion drugs by post – within Poland. During the process it became known that the woman had been beaten by her partner, already had a child with him and did not want another one. The man reported Wydrzyńska. The woman had not taken the medication at all, but later lost the child through a miscarriage. Wydrzyńska faces up to three years in prison.
From Janusz Rudziński’s point of view, all of this is no longer just a matter for the Polish state. The doctor would like the EU Commission to take a stand. He describes an atmosphere of fear and uncertainty on the part of doctors and women. Rudziński has worked for decades as a gynecologist in clinics in Poland, Sweden and Germany and has also had many abortions.
Today he doesn’t do any more interventions, says the 80-year-old. But he still has his practice in Schwedt an der Oder in Brandenburg. “I fight for women’s rights” is written on his Polish homepage, with three exclamation marks. And emphatically: “Every woman – including the Polish!!! – has a full right to decide about her own life!!!”
Women from all over Poland still call Rudziński every day for advice, be it about abortions or sterilizations. These are also banned in Poland, says the doctor. It starts with the fact that women hardly dare to have their pregnancy diagnosed by a doctor at all. “The central pregnancy register has been in existence since October.” Every doctor has to report the pregnancies monthly. “And we don’t even know yet what will actually happen to this data,” says Rudziński.
Rudziński and Kubisa see the health care of women as a whole being threatened by the harsh laws. Kubisa is at odds with the Polish government, but at the same time doesn’t want to abandon her Polish patients. At the end of February, she received the files and notebooks back, but not the mobile phone. Her patients have also hired lawyers and are defending themselves against the violation of medical confidentiality. So far without success.