Prosecutors drop charges against Polish doctor who aborted baby in ninth month

Prosecutors in Poland have dropped their case against a doctor who aborted a baby boy named Felek in the ninth month of pregnancy.

At a Glance:

• Prosecutors in Poland dropped the criminal investigation against Dr. Gizella Jagielski regarding an abortion she committed at 36 or 37 weeks.

• The prosecutors did not provide further details except to say there was a "lack of evidence."

• The baby had been diagnosed with osteogenesis imperfecta, also called brittle bone disease, but was otherwise expected to live a relatively normal life.

The Details:

Polish prosecutors decided that Dr. Gizella Jagielski did not violate Poland's abortion law when she carried out an abortion in the ninth month of pregnancy following baby Felek's diagnosis of osteogenesis imperfecta (OI), or brittle bone disease. The abortion involved injecting the baby boy with a feticide to cause cardiac arrest, and then delivering him stillborn. It is a violation of Poland's law to abort a child based on a prenatal diagnosis.

Prosecutors did not give details as to how they determined there was no wrongdoing in the abortion, but did say they found a "lack of evidence of a prohibited act."

Despite the case being dropped, it has been reported that Dr. Jagielska is not returning to her job at a hospital in Oleśnica, as her contract was not renewed. She believes the decision not to renew her contract was a political one.

“After 10 years of building the maternity ward in Oleśnica from scratch, you will no longer find me there. This is not my decision,” she said on Facebook.

Her husband, who is the head physician of the same department, is also leaving.

She told Radio TokFM, “For the hospital, it seems that it’s simply more convenient for me not to be there." She added that it seemed her departure had "been planned for some time."

Meanwhile, presidential candidate Grzegorz Braun is facing charges for attempting to carry out a citizen's arrest on Jagielska.

The Backstory:

Most preborn children are protected from abortion in Poland. While children who are conceived in rape or incest or whose mothers' lives are said to be at risk remain targets for abortion, children who receive a diagnosis before birth are no longer allowed to be legally killed. However, when Felek's mother, Anita, found out her preborn son had OI, she ultimately had him aborted based on her mental health.

She and her partner, Maciej, had learned about the diagnosis at 20 weeks, and doctors had told them not to worry because it was the "mildest form" of OI and was "not tragic." According to Gazeta Wyborcza, Anita said at the time:

Felek will go to kindergarten normally, then to school. No one may even know about the disease, because the bones will heal so quickly. We just have to be more careful with him, because he will be prone to fractures.

At 34 weeks, she was told she had to remain in the hospital until Felek was delivered. That's when she overheard some medical students commenting on the bend in Felek's legs and noting that he had broken bones.

“It was thanks to students, not doctors, that I realized that this is not some minor defect. My Felek is seriously ill,” she said.

A bone disease specialist then allegedly told Anita that Felek might not survive. However, his condition was unknown once doctors realized he had a new "de novo" mutation of OI, not one inherited from his parents. Still, Anita believed, "We can spare Felek pain by not giving him birth."

Why It Matters:

OI has varying degrees, and even if the diagnosis was for the most severe form of OI, Felek didn't deserve to be killed because his mother, as she explained it, "couldn't handle all of this" and didn't want to be someone who "doesn't work and only reaches out for money from the state."

Felek, like every human being, had inherent value and was worthy of life.

Anita was offered a C-section and the opportunity to place her son for adoption, but she refused, determining that her son was better off dead.

It can be difficult for an able-bodied person to imagine life with a physical disability, but that doesn't justify acts of ableism aimed at taking a child's life.

Theo, a young boy who has Type III OI, the most severe form, attends school, plays in a special basketball league, takes part in wheelchair track and adaptive bowling, loves to swim, and has been skiing.

What might Felek's life have looked like if only he hadn't been denied the opportunity to live it?