A Polish court has rejected a claim by a woman who accused police of abusing their powers during a controversial and widely reported case last year, in which they intervened after she had taken abortion pills. Parts of the interaction – in which she was ordered to strip – were caught on film and broadcast by the media.
In its justification for exonerating the police – obtained by the newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza – the court argued that the woman had “an interest in portraying herself as a victim of police brutality”, perhaps in order to obtain compensation, and that she had sought to publicise the case in the media.
The court’s decision has been described as “scandalous” by a lawyer representing the woman, who is named only as Joanna (and is pictured above). Joanna herself says she feels like she is in “some Kafkaesque labyrinth”.
The incident in question made headlines last year after a report by broadcaster TVN in which Joanna outlined the police’s actions towards her and claimed she had been mistreated.
Officers had intervened following a telephone conversation Joanna had had with her psychiatrist in which she admitted to having suicidal thoughts and taking abortion pills a few days earlier. Joanna’s doctor alerted the emergency services and the police about a suspected suicide attempt. She was admitted to the emergency ward of Krakow’s Military Hospital at the end of April due to her poor physical and mental state after she had called her doctor and admitted taking abortion pills.
Shortly after the call with her doctor, an ambulance and a police car appeared in front of Joanna’s house. After she was taken to hospital, female police officers entered the examination room with her and she was asked to undress, do squats and cough, even though she was still bleeding. They also seized her computer and phone.
According to Joanna, the police officers who took her to a hospital for examination, questioned her mainly about the abortion pills and not her health or the possible suicide attempt. They argued that their intervention was necessary to check whether someone had assisted her in terminating her pregnancy. Subsequently, Joanna filed two legal cases against the police, one accusing them of abusing their authority and the other demanding 100,000 zloty (€23,367) in compensation for wrongful detention.
SOURCE: Notes from Poland, 28 September 2024. See also Notes from Poland, 19 July 2023.