New UN Report: Polish Abortion Law Violates Human Rights

In a groundbreaking report, the United Nations (UN) has denounced Poland’s restrictive abortion law for causing severe human rights violations. The three-year investigation, conducted by the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), reveals the devastating toll the law is taking on women’s health and rights in Poland and calls for swift and sweeping legal reform to legalize and fully decriminalize abortion. 

The CEDAW inquiry into Poland’s abortion law was initiated after submissions by the Center for Reproductive Rights, in collaboration with Polish civil society organizations including the Foundation for Women and Family Planning (FEDERA) and the Karat Coalition. This effort sought to draw urgent international attention to Poland’s severe abortion restrictions and their harmful impact on women’s health, rights, and bodily autonomy over decades.  

Poland’s abortion law is among the most restrictive in Europe and one of the four countries in the world that has rolled back abortion rights, allowing abortion only when a woman’s life or health is at risk or if the pregnancy results from a criminal act such as rape or incest. However, even in these limited cases, the report highlights that accessing a legal abortion is virtually impossible, leaving many women in dire situations. Tragic incidents have emerged where women have died in Polish hospitals after being denied critical, life-saving care, illustrating the dangerous consequences of these stringent laws. 

The CEDAW report exposes the systemic nature of these violations, revealing how Poland’s restrictive abortion law inflicts severe physical and mental suffering on women—that may be so severe as to amount to “cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.” Women are forced to endure unwanted pregnancies, seek unsafe and illegal abortions, or travel abroad for medical care, all at great personal and financial cost.  

“These findings confirm the grave forms of pain and suffering that women in Poland have endured for decades because of a legal system of state control that severely limits their access to reproductive health care. The Committee’s findings are clear: legalizing abortion care is the only way in which the Polish state can safeguard women’s health and protect their personal integrity. A moratorium on the enforcement of criminal law provisions regarding abortion must urgently be imposed, and law reform processes must ensure the swift legalization of abortion and its full decriminalization,” said Katrine Thomasen, the Center’s Associate Director for Europe. 

The Committee is calling on Poland to adopt comprehensive abortion reforms to end these human rights violations. It calls for: 

• Legalizing and fully decriminalizing abortion and placing women’s autonomy at the center of policy;  

• An immediate moratorium on criminal penalties related to abortion and an end to any investigations and prosecutions; 

• Improved access to safe abortion services; 

• Comprehensive sexual and reproductive health care, including access to modern, affordable contraception. 

“This landmark report serves as a wake-up call for Poland. It signals a crucial moment for change, and the Polish government must act now to end these ongoing and grave human rights violations,” Thomasen said. 

Read the full CEDAW report here.