Ms. Wydrzynska, who has been an abortion rights activist in Poland for the previous 16 years, stated in an interview final summer season with The Occasions that she had all the time been cautious to offer solely directions on shopping for and utilizing abortion medicines, and to not present the tablets themselves.
However in February 2020, she stated within the interview, she obtained a determined message from a girl recognized as Anna who was searching for an abortion. The decision from the girl, who, the court docket heard, was in an abusive relationship, revived Ms. Wydrzynska’s personal traumatic recollections of a violent relationship and getting an abortion. It prompted her, she stated, to do one thing she had by no means executed earlier than — ship the girl a bundle of tablets.
“I despatched Anna tablets as a result of I came upon that she had skilled violence like me,” Ms. Wydrzynska informed the court docket in her closing assertion on Tuesday, barely holding again tears.
The girl’s accomplice learn the messages between the 2 girls, the court docket heard, and reported Ms. Wydrzynska to the police. She was charged with “possession of medicine with out authorization to be able to place them in the marketplace” and “aiding abortion.” The court docket in Warsaw discovered Ms. Wydrzynska responsible of aiding abortion by sending misoprostol tablets, an abortion treatment, and sentenced her to 30 hours of neighborhood service a month for eight months.
Ordo Iuris, a Polish Catholic authorized group and anti-abortion group that was registered as a civil celebration within the trial, had demanded jail time for Ms. Wydrzynska however had no authorized proper to take action.
A consultant of the group, Magdalena Majkowska, informed the court docket on Tuesday that Ms. Wydrzynska’s conviction ought to “be considered a major step in the direction of actual respect for the fitting to lifetime of unborn youngsters in Poland.”
Ms. Wydrzynska stated the court docket’s justification for its choice had not been made public.
“I’m harmless,” she stated. “I say it loudly — the state is accountable. It has failed me, Anna, Iza from Pszczyna, Agnieszka from Częstochowa and thousands and thousands of girls on this nation,” she added, referring to the ladies who died after having been refused abortions.
Supply: NY Times