896 abortions were performed in hospitals - according to National Health Fund data for 2024.

In 2024, 896 terminations of pregnancy were performed in hospitals - according to data from the National Health Fund (NFZ). This is more than in 2023, when 425 legal terminations of pregnancy were performed in hospitals.

The National Health Fund data on the number of miscarriage inductions for the period from January to December 2024 was provided to PAP on Monday by the Legalna Aborcja Collective.

They show that in the Lower Silesian Voivodeship 148 abortions were performed in hospitals, in the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship - 19, in the Lublin Voivodeship - 109, in the Lubusz Voivodeship - 16, in the Łódź Voivodeship - 88, in the Lesser Poland Voivodeship - 51, in the Mazovian Voivodeship - 261, in the Opole Voivodeship - 16, in the Podkarpackie Voivodeship less than five (due to the sensitivity of the data, when the number of abortions is less than five, the list does not include the exact number), in the Podlaskie Voivodeship - 9, in the Pomeranian Voivodeship - 40, in the Silesian Voivodeship - 48, in the Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship less than five, in the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship - 13, in the Wielkopolska Voivodeship - 54, in the West Pomeranian Voivodeship - 19.

The law in Poland allows for termination of pregnancy in the event of a threat to the health or life of the woman, as well as when the pregnancy is the result of a prohibited act. After the Constitutional Tribunal's judgment of 2020, which came into force in January 2021, the third premise for abortion was deleted - a severe, irreversible defect of the fetus. This premise was the most common reason for terminating pregnancy in Polish hospitals until the Constitutional Tribunal's ruling - about a thousand procedures were performed annually for this reason.

In 2023, 425 terminations of pregnancy were performed in hospitals (423 due to a threat to the woman's life or health and two abortions in cases where the pregnancy was the result of a prohibited act). In 2022, 161 procedures were performed, all due to a threat to the life or health of the pregnant person. In 2021, 107 abortions were performed in hospitals; in 2020 - 1,078; in 2019 - 1,110.

The Legal Abortion Collective noted that data on the availability of abortion in hospitals in 2020-2024 show an increase in the number of abortions depending on the region. "The Lublin province is particularly surprising, where the number of abortions has reached an unprecedentedly high level," the organization noted. In 2020, 12 abortions were performed in this province; in 2021 - 4; in 2022 - 0; in 2023 - 6.

She stressed that in the Masovian, Łódź, Greater Poland and Lower Silesian voivodeships the number of abortions is close to that in 2020.

In August last year, the Minister of Health, Izabela Leszczyna, presented guidelines for hospitals and doctors, which are an interpretation of the applicable law on termination of pregnancy. She emphasized at the time that a single medical opinion confirming the existence of a risk to the woman's health, including, for example, a certificate from a psychiatrist, is sufficient for the termination of pregnancy procedure. Another solution introduced by the Minister of Health last year assumes that a hospital that has a contract with the National Health Fund to provide gynaecology and obstetrics services is obliged to perform the termination of pregnancy on site, regardless of whether the doctors working in the hospital invoke the conscience clause.

At the beginning of August last year, guidelines for prosecutors on how to conduct cases involving refusal to terminate pregnancy and medical abortion were issued by Prosecutor General Adam Bodnar.

According to the Legal Abortion Collective, the regulations and guidelines of the Ministry of Health have only marginally improved the availability of abortion in Polish hospitals.

The Legal Abortion collective noted that the number of abortions in Polish hospitals constitutes only 1.9% of abortions, trips abroad to perform abortions with the Abortion Without Borders network constitute 2.4%, and abortions with abortion pills - 95.7%. The organization emphasized that access to abortion in Poland is closely linked to medical abortion and this method is preferred and most often chosen by Polish women.

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