Eight Polish women have challenged their country’s abortion laws at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), and had their complaints filed as inadmissible. The complainants claimed that their right to respect for private and family life, as set in the European Convention of Human Rights, are violated by Poland’s near total ban on abortion, but the ECHR found the petitions were „too remote and abstract” due to a lack of clear medical evidence. The ruling was the first on such a case, and the conservative European Centre for Law and Justice think tank welcomed the ruling. The ECHR has received 1,000 similar complaints since 2021, and the ruling has increased the extreme barriers to women seeking access to abortion. In 2021, just 107 abortions were performed legally in Poland, though it is estimated that 150,000 terminations take place in the country outside the official system each year.
At least seven women are said to have lost their lives as a result of the law denying them abortions in Poland. The Polish Foundation for Women and Family Planning
(FEDERA) lawyer Kamila Ferenc said that while these particular cases had been dismissed by the ECHR, there were four others pending under her organisation’s coordination.
The ECHR ultimately has the power to award compensation to victims or instruct a country to change its laws, though in practice the 46 Council of Europe members over which it presides have been known to snub verdicts. The European Convention on Human Rights does not explicitly refer to the concept of reproductive health or reproductive rights.
