WARSAW, Poland (AP) – The Polish government, which has a near-total ban on abortion, has faced accusations Monday that it has set up a “pregnancy registry” as the country expands the amount of medical data stored digitally for patients.
Defenders of women’s rights and opposition politicians fear that women face unprecedented scrutiny given the conservative views of a ruling party that has already tightened one of Europe’s most restrictive abortion laws.
They fear that the new data could be used by police and prosecutors against women whose pregnancies end, even in cases of miscarriage, or that women could be tracked by the state if they order abortion pills or travel abroad for abortions. .
“The pregnancy registry in a country with an almost complete abortion ban is appalling,” said Agnieszka Dzemjanovic-Bonk, a left-wing lawmaker.
The issue came to attention on Monday after Health Minister Adam Nidzelsky signed an ordinance Friday to expand the amount of information to be stored in a central patient database, including information on allergies, blood type and pregnancy.
Health Ministry spokesman Wojciech Andrusevic sought to allay fears, saying only medical professionals would have access to the data and that the changes were being made on the recommendation of the European Union.
Efforts, he said, are aimed at improving patients’ medical treatment, including if they seek treatment elsewhere in the 27-nation EU. In the case of pregnant women, he said it would help doctors immediately understand which women should not receive X-rays or certain medications.
“No one is creating a pregnancy registry in Poland,” he told TVN24.
But Martha Lampart, leader of a group for women’s rights, Women’s Strike, said she did not trust the government to keep police and prosecutorial information about women’s pregnancies. She told the Associated Press that Polish police are already asking women how they end their pregnancies, informed by disgruntled partners.
“Being pregnant means that the police can come to you at any time and prosecutors can come to you to ask you questions about your pregnancy,” Lampart said.
The new system means that many Polish women will now avoid the state health care system during their pregnancies, with richer women seeking private treatment or traveling abroad, even for prenatal care.
Meanwhile, poorer women in Poland will face an increased risk of medical problems or even death by avoiding prenatal care, Lempart fears.
Lampart also worries that information obtained by the police could be shared with the state media to damage people’s reputations.
She already knows how this can happen. In 2020, Lampart tested positive for COVID-19 and the information was announced by state television even before it received its results.
Poland – a predominantly Catholic country – prohibits abortion in almost all cases, except when a woman’s life or health is endangered or if the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest.
For years, abortion was allowed for fetuses with birth defects. This exception was removed by the Constitutional Court in 2020.
In practice, Polish women who want to terminate their pregnancies order abortion pills or travel to Germany, the Czech Republic and other countries where the procedure is allowed. While self-administration of abortion pills is legal, helping someone else is not.
Activist Justyna Wydrzyńska faces up to three years in prison for helping a victim of domestic violence receive abortion pills. Amnesty International says this is the first such case in Europe.
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