French politicians traveled to Poland just to deliver abortion pills

As Poland continues to face international pressure to abandon its pro-life laws, a group of French politicians visited the country solely to dispense hundreds of abortion pills — and vowed to come back.

Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported that members of the France Unbowed (LFI) party visited an abortion facility which recently opened directly across from the Polish parliament. The facility opened despite the fact that preborn children are protected from abortion in Poland, except in cases of rape, incest, or danger to the life of the mother.

“We are bringing something to help women who want to terminate a pregnancy because whatever the situation, women’s bodies belong to neither the state nor the Church, but to women and women alone,” Mathilde Panot, chief of LFI’s parliamentary party, told AFP.

Justyna Wydrzyńska, a Polish abortion activist who was found guilty of abetting an abortion in 2023, said it was “a show of political support for us, support that we don’t have from politicians in Poland.”

Though abortion is largely illegal in Poland, women face no penalty for undergoing a chemical abortion in their own home, meaning abortions can still take place using pills ordered online and shipped from another country. Earlier this month, however, there was public outcry after a doctor committed an induced abortion on a preborn baby at 37 weeks gestation, solely because the mother did not want to give birth to a baby with a disability. Though some claim the mother’s health was at risk, she told Polish media that she was not suicidal, and sought the abortion to spare her child suffering, even as doctors said there were no signs of severe defects. The doctor is currently under investigation.

READ: Outrage in Poland: Baby with disability killed by abortion at 37 weeks

The international community has heavily criticized Poland’s abortion laws, though Polish legislators have remained firm in their commitment to protecting life. The European Union (EU) voted to sanction Poland for violating EU laws; in 2021, the EU issued a resolution declaring abortion a “human right.” The United Nations also released a report last year accusing Poland of committing human rights violations because women cannot easily access abortion.

“The situation in Poland constitutes gender-based violence against women and may rise to the level of torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment,” CEDAW Vice-Chair Genoveva Tisheva said in a press release. “Together, these factors create a complex, hostile and chilling environment in which access to safe abortion is stigmatised and practically impossible.”

The fight to respect all human life is evident in Poland’s presidential race as well, with a vote set to take place on May 18. Presidential candidate Slawomir Mentzen has been under fire since defending all human lives in March. “We have no right to kill another person just because they upset us, are unpleasant to us, or could seriously harm our lives,” he said. “We do not kill innocent people – I believe this is very important.”