Poland obliges medics to gather information on pregnancies, elevating concern amongst abortion rights activists

Poland’s central healthcare info system is to incorporate info on whether or not a affected person is pregnant. Girls’s rights activists and opposition politicians have criticised what they name a “being pregnant register”, saying it might be misused by a authorities that has overseen the introduction of a near-total ban on abortion.

However the well being ministry denies such claims, insisting the transfer solely expands the present system in accordance with European Fee tips, is in line with plans first made when the primary opposition social gathering was in energy, and is designed to help healthcare for pregnant ladies.

Underneath a regulation signed by well being minister Adam Niedzielski on Friday, medical personnel will gather further information from sufferers from October this yr. This can embody info on allergic reactions, blood group in addition to being pregnant, defined well being ministry spokesman Wojciech Andrusewicz.

“A being pregnant register in a rustic with an nearly full ban on abortion is terrifying,” responded Agnieszka Dziemianowicz-Bąk, an MP for The Left (Lewica). “Even immediately, Polish ladies keep away from getting pregnant out of concern that they are going to be pressured to present delivery in each state of affairs. There are much more causes to be scared now.”

Andrusewicz, nevertheless, rejected such criticism. “We’re not creating any register, however solely increasing the reporting system primarily based on European Fee suggestions,” he stated, noting that work on getting ready the rules was concluded in 2013, when Civic Platform (PO), now the most important opposition social gathering, was in energy.

Andrusewicz added that it’s a part of strikes to align Poland with different European Union states as a part of the Worldwide Affected person Abstract, which is ready to function from subsequent yr.

“Its implementation is compulsory for all EU states,” he famous. “Together with being pregnant…is completely justified contemplating the significance of this info when it comes to the healthcare course of.”

“The usual for affected person documentation is recording details about their well being situation,” Niedzielski stated final yr, when criticism of the plans first emerged. “Details about being pregnant is presently included in a affected person’s paper documentation, and now it is going to be recorded electronically.”

Within the justification for the regulation, the well being ministry says that the pregnant girl’s well being is the prime concern, as “some examinations can’t be carried out throughout being pregnant or require a change in process”, experiences Gazeta.pl.

“In sure circumstances, norms for pregnant ladies are completely different from these outdoors of being pregnant”, whereas “info {that a} affected person is pregnant means noting the necessity to take specific care in choice of proposed supplementary checks and beneficial remedy”, it explains.

Andrusewicz additionally famous that solely a affected person’s physician could have entry to the knowledge. Nevertheless, Federa, a ladies’s reproductive rights group, warns that it’s “simple to think about a state of affairs wherein a physician, seeing a affected person who’s not pregnant, begins asking questions”.

Because the introduction of the near-total abortion ban final yr, pro-choice activists and a few within the medical group warn that medical doctors concern authorized repercussions below the harder legislation, which leads them to offer or deny remedy in a fashion that places ladies’s well being and lives in danger. Supporters of the ban deny this.

In the meantime Wojciech Klicki of Panoptykon, a human rights group, advised Gazeta Wyborcza immediately it’s not true that solely medical doctors could have entry to the knowledge. Legislation enforcement companies, together with prosecutors, will even have entry, he stated.

Opposition politicians stay unconvinced by the well being ministry’s rationalization for the newly expanded register.

Krzysztof Brejza, a PO senator who strongly criticised the unique plans, stated that the medical group had not given a constructive opinion of the proposals and that there had been no sign lately of the necessity for the introduction of a “being pregnant register”.

“What has modified is {that a} draconian, inhuman ruling was launched,” he advised Wirtualna Polska, referring to the constitutional court docket ruling that outlawed abortions on account of delivery defects, which beforehand made up over 90% of all authorized terminations in Poland. “That is constructing an oppressive state intimidating residents. That is Orwell’s 1984.”

Professional-choice activists have tried to allay some issues, nevertheless. “An important factor that doesn’t change is the FACT that people who find themselves pregnant will not be punished for terminating their very own being pregnant, and there’s no proposal in parliament to vary that,” wrote Abortion Dream Staff, a bunch that helps ladies acquire abortions.

Most important picture credit score: Adam Stepien / Agencja Gazeta