Urgent pardon sought for Polish mom sentenced after warning against unethical OB/GYN

A woman in Poland will be sentenced to prison this week for warning a pregnant woman against using a particular OB/GYN — unless President Karol Nawrocki pardons her.

In 2022, Weronika Krawczyk advised another pregnant woman not to use a particular OB/GYN and was arrested because of it. Now, Nawrocki has just days left to pardon her before she is sent to jail.

Key Takeaways:

• A mother in Poland is set to be sentenced to prison for warning a pregnant mother against an OB/GYN who had previously misdiagnosed her own child and urged her to abort.

• When authorities found out, they arrested the woman for conduct that "discredited" the doctor "in the face of public opinion."

• A judge sentenced her to community service and ordered her to apologize to the doctor, despite his known history of committing illegal abortions. She refused.

• The judge has given her one month to appeal to the country's president for pardon, and if she is unsuccessful, he plans to sentence her to jail time — which means weeks away from her young child.

The Backstory:

In 2016, Krawczyk was pregnant with her second child when she went to see Dr. Piotr A.

Following an ultrasound scan, he told her that her preborn son had Down syndrome and offered her an abortion, which is illegal in Poland. Krawczyk refused, changed doctors, and, at 34-35 weeks, gave birth to baby who did not have Down syndrome.

In 2022, Krawczyk was pregnant again, and had joined an online group for pregnant women when another mother asked if Dr. A was a good doctor. Krawczyk advised the woman not to use Dr. A as her doctor.

"She said, 'No, never go to him. He was going to kill my baby. He said the baby had Down syndrome and my baby was healthy,'" Kaja Godek of the Life and Family Foundation told Live Action News.

In Poland, under Criminal Code Art. 212, it is illegal to tell "another person, a group of persons, an institution or organisational unit, conduct or characteristics that may discredit [a person] in the face of public opinion."

Krawczyk's advice to avoid Dr. A reached authorities, and she was arrested.

She contacted Life and Family Foundation for legal assistance and support. The group issued a petition on her behalf and went with her to court. The court proceedings were closed so the details are unknown to the public, but Krawczyk was sentenced to three months of community service and a fine, and was ordered to apologize to Dr. A, who has a known history of committing illegal abortions.

She refused.

"[Dr. A] wants her to apologize because he offered her an abortion when he had been punished for doing illegal abortions previously," said Godek. "If you want an abortion you have to go to a hospital, but he had been committing them in his clinic, which is forbidden."

The Details:

One month ago, the judge said that if she did not apologize to the doctor who is illegally committing abortions, he would have to give her jail time.

Krawczyk told the judge that she is hoping President Nawrocki will pardon her, and the judge gave her one month to be pardoned or he would issue her a prison sentence. That one month window ends on Friday, April 17.

Godek wrote on X:

"If the pardon doesn't come, this brave mother could end up in prison at any moment because she refused to apologize to the abortionist whose bloody services she didn't use. And here's the shocking thing: the court and the probation officer proceeded IMMEDIATELY to execute the sentence! Much faster than usual in such cases!

Weronika has already met with the probation officer, signed a statement stating that she will not apologize to Piotr A., ​​and has been warned that she faces approximately 1.5 months in prison for this. At any moment, her little children could be left without their mother for six long weeks..."

In a letter, Krawczyk shared that she would not back down. She explained:

"There is pain in me, there is uncertainty, there are tears - but there is also certainty flowing from the conviction that I didn't break my conscience. That I defended the life of my little son and other children, even if today I have to pay the highest price for it."

In a statement published by Catholic Action in Poland, the National Ecclesiastical Assistant of Catholic Action, Bishop Marek Mendyk, and the President of Catholic Action, Andrzej Kamiński said:

[T]he attempt to coerce the convicted woman into apologizing to the doctor who wanted to perform an abortion on her son provokes indignation.

No apology is owed to a doctor who has performed many abortions and proposed more. We consider the fact that the court intends to send a young mother to a penal institution for failing to apologize to be a profound negation of the values on which social life in our Fatherland is to be based.

... we appeal to the President of the Republic of Poland, Mr. Karol Nawrocki, to exercise the right of pardon toward Mrs. Weronika Krawczyk, within the framework of the prerogative specified in Article 139 of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland.

A pardon in this case will be not only an expression of mercy, but also a clear signal that the Polish state stands guard over life and highly values actions taken in its defence—even when the justice system itself fails.

Krawczyk's bishop, Bishop Ryszard Kasyna of Pelplin, issued a statement on Sunday, calling for the president to pardon her, for Catholics to sign a petition in support of Krawczyk, and saying, "As your Shepherd, I also ask: let us pray for her, her family, and her children, that God will give them strength and that the justice system will not harm this innocent mother. May this case be a reminder to all of us that defending life today can be an act of courage that requires our solidarity, prayer, and commitment."

The Bottom Line:

According to Godek, the case may be the first major pro-life case to be heard by the European Court of Human Rights.