'So unjust': Polish lawyers offer legal aid amid abortion help ban

As Polish lawmakers debated easing stringent abortion laws, Warsaw-based lawyer Jerzy Podgorski was in court defending a man from the remote town of Pinczow charged with aiding his partner's abortion.

Despite recent efforts to loosen the policy, Poland still has one of Europe's most restrictive rules on terminating pregnancies, which even outlaw abortion assistance and punish it by up to three years in jail.

The ruling alliance, split on the issue, was unable to garner enough support this month to pass a bill that would decriminalise the act.

Podgorski's client, identified as Grzegorz, was found guilty this month of providing his long-time partner with pills to terminate their pregnancy at her request.

It was the second such high-profile case for the seasoned lawyer.

Last year, he represented Justyna Wydrzynska, Poland's first pro-choice activist sentenced to community service for supplying a pregnant woman with abortion pills.

"Every such case is one case too many," Podgorski told AFP.

"It is so unjust that it makes my blood boil, this whole situation of restricting women's reproductive rights."

He said he felt an "inner urge" to help in abortion-related legal cases -- often for free.

- 'Complete violation' -

In Poland, women can only get an abortion in the hospital if the pregnancy results from sexual assault or incest or poses a direct threat to the life or health of the mother.

No law penalises them if they carry out their own abortion, for instance with pills ordered online through organisations based in EU countries where the procedure is legal.

But for Podgorski, outlawed abortion assistance is a rule "indirectly aimed at women themselves".

The goal "is to isolate a woman who wants to terminate her pregnancy from the whole world, to make her completely alone... because anyone who helped her would be punished", he said.

Podgorski said the case of Grzegorz, who refused to speak to media, served as an example of repression against women.

Police first detained Grzegorz's partner, he told AFP, which took place "right in front of her home when she was walking her children back from kindergarten".

"The police acted in complete violation of any criminal procedures."

After defending Wydrzynska, the pro-choice activist, Podgorski joined the "Lawyers Pro Abo" nonprofit.

"In our opinion, the right to terminate an unwanted pregnancy, as well as the right to use a chosen method of contraception, are human rights that should be protected by the state," the organisation said on its website.

- 'My own abortion' -

To Karolina Gierdal, an anti-discrimination lawyer, the decision to join the group seemed obvious.

"My personal breakthrough was probably my own abortion, when I ordered pills and performed a medical abortion myself," Gierdal told AFP.

She is among the lawyers who offer legal advice via the group's email and helpline.

"Our everyday reality begins with the immense fear of the pregnant person," Gierdal said, adding that women who seek abortions are afraid to put their close ones in danger.

The rules against abortion assistance cause "a lot of anxiety about where such help begins and ends -- can my friend be with me? Can they pass me a hot-water bottle?"

Women trying to terminate their pregnancies are forced to consider preventative measures to ensure their partners aren't held responsible, Gierdal said.

"The whole circle that should be a circle of support for the person is suddenly criminalised," she added.

"My own abortion gives me the strength to fight so that other people can also have one safely and with the full support of their loved ones."

- 'Saved many women' -

Kamila Ferenc was selected by Poland's bar as last year's top defence lawyer for her fight for women's rights in the predominantly Catholic country.

Ferenc, who works with the Federa women's rights group, said she learned the ins and outs of the reproductive rights through the nonprofit.

"It terrified me how women are disrespected and their rights violated, how they are humiliated in Polish hospitals, how doctors harm their patients and disregard them," Ferenc told AFP.

"I decided to roll up my sleeves" and do something, she said.

Ferenc did not shy away from prominent cases like that of the woman who last year ordered abortion pills and, after getting ratted out by her psychologist, had her flat raided by the police and was subjected to a hospital strip search.

"I deeply believe that when evil occurs, it must be confronted," Ferenc said.

Among her biggest successes, Ferenc counts an ombudsman's decision to recognise risks to women's mental, not just physical, health as a valid reason for legal abortion.

Ferenc had earlier filed a complaint after a young woman she represented was refused an abortion despite evidence of the pregnancy's risk to her mental health.

"Thanks to such actions, we've saved many women."