I am Justyna

We are facing an unprecedented court hearing on abortion!

We need your help to publicize this heartbreaking affair and send a signal to other women that you also wouldn’t be afraid to help (#IamJustyna).

Our friend Justyna can face up 3 years in prison for helping a person in an unwanted pregnancy have an abortion.

The next hearing in Justyna’s case will take place on the 14th of October at 9:30 AM in a court in Warszawa-Praga district court on Poligonowa street.

What can you do?

• Speak loud. Use your social media to bring attention to the matter. You can let everyone know that you too would act like Justyna! Use #IAmJustyna or tag our Instagram @aborcyjnydream.
• Go to the Amnesty International website and sign the petition demanding that the charges brought against Justyna for supporting access to safe abortion be dropped!
• Support our abortion fund, so that we can keep providing abortions to anyone that needs one!

About the case

Justyna Wydrzyńska is an activist and a member of the Abortion Dream Team and Abortion Without Borders. She has been charged with aiding an abortion – she gave her own abortion pills to Ania, a woman she did not know.

Ania was married to an abusive man. The decision to have an abortion was easy for her, it is the surrounding circumstances that made it difficult. She was unable to travel to a German clinic, after her husband threatened to report a kidnapping if she left the country with their three-year-old. It was the beginning of the pandemic and the postal services were unreliable. Nobody knew how long it would take for abortion pills ordered from Women Help Women to reach Poland.

Ania looked for help online, where she happened upon Abortion Without Borders. She asked for help and informed them that her husband was reading her messages and emails and checking her browser history. This is how Justyna learned about Ania’s story, which reminded her of her own past – a few years back she was in the exact same situation.

„Every single day Abortion Without Borders is contacted by people who are trying to hide an unwanted pregnancy and their plan to terminate it. I myself experienced how it feels to be with a man who controls you and denies your right to decide for yourself. I had to keep my abortion a secret from him.”
says Justyna

Justyna decided to help Ania directly once she realized it might be difficult to help her otherwise. „Where there is a will, there is a way” she told herself and sent Ania her own abortion pills. The controlling husband learned about their plan and they were both busted by the police.

Justyna gave her statement and answered questions during the first court hearing that took place on the 8th of April. Addressing the court she said:

“I know how crucial it is to believe that you can decide for yourself. It is extremely difficult to hold on to that belief in an abusive relationship. My abortion was my first step towards freedom and my children’s safety. It took me three years to leave my abusive husband. When I gave this person my pills, I wanted her to be able to make a decision about her life. I didn’t want her to have an abortion, I wanted her to have her own choice, I wanted her to be able to decide once she had the pills in her hand”.

Poland is one of two EU countries where abortion is almost entirely banned.

Polish antiabortion law, passed in 1993, allowed for abortion only in three cases: fetal defects, danger to life or health of the pregnant person, or if the pregnancy was the product of a crime. A politically biased Constitutional Tribunal tightened the law in 2020 by removing the provision about fetal defects. People who have abortions are not criminalized under Polish law, but those who directly help them are. Justyna, a member of Abortion Without Borders, is facing up to three years in prison.

What happened so far?

• The judge allowed Ordo Iuris, a fundamentalist catholic organization, to act in a supporting role to the prosecution during the proceedings. OI claimed to be protecting the interests of the fetus and its „successors”.
• 94 members of the European Parliament signed a letter to the Polish government, calling for the charges against Justyna to be dropped.
• Justyna received the support of FIGO – the largest international organization representing gynecologists and obstetricians that is comprised of over 130 gynecological associations from around the world. FIGO published a statement demanding that the charges against Justyna Wydrzyńska be dropped, calling her a human rights’ defender and pointing out her important role in providing access to safe abortion. Polish authorities did not react.
• Four UN special rapporteurs called on the Polish authorities to drop the charges against Justyna. These were: Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders Mary Lawlor, Chair-Rapporteur of the United Nations Working Group on discrimination against women and girls Melissa Upreti, Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health Tlaleng Mofokeng and Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences Reem Alsalem. Polish Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Health and Ministry of Family and Social Policy answered their appeal. Their position can summed up as follows: “given that life begins at conception, your remarks are void”.
• Justyna received a letter of solidarity from orgaznizations that assist in abortions in Latin America.
• Solidarity demonstrations in Derry, Northern Ireland have been taking place every Friday since the 8 th of April. They are organized by a group called Derry for Choice, who say that “charges against one of us are a danger to us all”.
• As many as 3500 emails and 1200 letters, many of them handwritten, were sent to the prosecutor’s office. The messages, voicing support for Justyna, were sent from Germany, Switzerland, France, Ireland, the UK, as well as the US and Canada.
• Over 23 thousand people signed a petition in support of Justyna published by Amnesty International Poland. You can sign it as well!
• Belgian government donated 20 thousand euros to Abortion Without Borders. Secretary of State for Gender equality, Equal opportunity and Diversity Sarah Schlitz officially informed Justyna about the donation during a meeting in Brussels. By inviting Justyna she wanted to affirm her as a human rights defender.
• On the 5th of July we launched a campaign called Her Body – Her Choice, which featured men telling other men that only the pregnant person can decide about an abortion. It is the first such campaign in the world. We published the campaign video right before the second hearing in Justyna’s case to highlight the subject of domestic violence. Both Justyna and Ania had controlling and abusive partners. They were both caught by the police because of Ania’s husband.
• Many organizations, such as International Planned Parenthood Federation, IBIS Reproductive Health, Women’s Link Worldwide, Fòs Feminista, International Federation of Gynaecology and Obstetrics (FIGO), sent letters to the Polish authorities or amicus briefs to the court in support of Justyna.
• Swedish EMP Malin Björk posted a solidarity video on Facebook in which she said: ”This is a message of support to Justyna and to all those women that stand behind and in solidarity with women claiming the right to decide over their bodies and their sexuality. (…) [Justyna] do know that we stand with you and with all those that stand in solidarity with Polish women’s right to abortion care. We will not forget and we will not stop fighting!” During the second hearing on the 14th of July, the judge asked Justyna if she is of reproductive age. Key witnesses did not show up so the hearing has been postponed.