The Right To Choose—On The Other Side Of The Border

There was a time when abortion used to be legal in Poland: under the communist regime. As the Iron Curtain fell, the Catholic Church, with the help of Polish Pope John Paul II, became the one and only source of legitimacy, morality and power. Its most important goal: banning abortion.

Still it isn't completely impossible to terminate a pregnancy in Poland. But the law is among the most restrictive ones in Europe. There are only three exceptions: when the mother's health is at risk, when the foetus suffers from severe cognitive disorder or when the woman got pregnant from rape or incest. But even then it can be difficult to find a doctor willing to perform an abortion, as the anonymous testimony collected by TIME shows.

Her physician told her she was crazy, says Kaja, and that stopping the medication could harm her pregnancy. Kaja realized that ending the pregnancy was what she needed to do for her own health, but she also knew her doctor could never help her.

That is the reason why more and more women are crossing the border seeking for help. And the international networks are responding to their distress signal. Janusz Rudzinski, a doctor in the German town of Prezlau, only about 50 km from the Polish border, estimates that 20 Polish women come to his clinic looking for an abortion every week. In Berlin, the German capital, a small NGO called Ciocia Basia (Aunt Basia in Polish), helps women from the neighboring country with information, translation and, if needed, money and accommodation, in order to put an end to the unwanted pregnancy. Other international organisations, like Women Help Women, send packages with medicines via ordinary post, so women can have safe medical abortions at home.

After failing last October, Poland's conservative establishment is trying again to restrict further the exemptions for having an abortion. But as they did during the 'black protests', women are ready to fight back.