In Poland, ending a pregnancy is only permitted in cases of rape, incest or if the mother’s life is in danger. The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), Europe’s top human rights court, based in Strasbourg, ruled that Poland had interfered with the private life of a woman who, after her fetus was diagnosed with a birth defect, had an abortion abroad because she was unsure it was legal at home. They also ordered that Poland pay damages to the woman.
The woman, born in 1981, filed a complaint with the European Court of Human Rights over having to travel to a private clinic in the Netherlands in November 2020 to abort a fetus that had Down’s Syndrome.
This is the second time that the Court has issued a judgment against Poland relating to its near-total abortion ban. The Court found that the woman’s right to private and family life was violated by the legal uncertainty created by the delay between the Polish Constitutional Tribunal (TK) ruling of October 2020, which banned abortion in cases of birth defects, and its implementation by the government over three months later.
SOURCES: Notes from Poland, 13 November 2025 ; France 24/Agence France Presse. 13 November 2025.