Litigation Briefing Series

The Litigation Briefing Series provides summaries and background information on high-impact cases that seek to strengthen legal protections for women’s reproductive rights in courts and human rights bodies around the world.

RR v. Poland, S&T v. Poland, and Z v. Poland
Human Rights Violations Caused By Exceedingly Restrictive Abortion Law


Poland has one of the most restrictive abortion laws in Europe. R.R. v. Poland, S & T v. Poland and Z v. Poland, three pending cases before the European Court of Human Rights, filed by lawyers from the Center of Reproductive Rights, the Federation for Women and Family Planning’s Reproductive Rights Legal Network, and the University of Warsaw Human Rights Clinic, highlight the human rights violations suffered by Polish women because of that country’s exceedingly restrictive and unclear abortion law.

The case R.R. v. Poland centers on a woman who was repeatedly refused diagnostic care while pregnant after a routine sonogram detected a cyst on the fetus’s neck. Genetic tests were repeatedly stalled, preventing her from obtaining timely information on the health of the fetus and hindering her from seeking a legal abortion.

In April 2008, T, then 14 years old, was raped by a classmate. T and her mother, S, reported the rape to the police the next day. T was referred to a health clinic for an examination. Despite her youth and the fact that she was raped, she was not offered emergency contraception, which could have prevented pregnancy. T was legally entitled to an abortion under Polish law, but when she sought one, with the support of her mother, she was denied timely and professional medical attention, continuously harassed by clergy and health care personnel, and temporarily removed from her mother’s custody.

In Z v. Poland, healthcare providers denied diagnostic care and necessary treatment to a pregnant woman suffering from ulcerative colitis, in part because they were afraid properly treating her might harm the fetus. Numerous hospitals and doctors refused to provide medical care, resulting in a miscarriage and ultimately the woman’s unnecessary death.

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