Ms. Wydrzynska, who has been an abortion rights activist in Poland for the previous 16 years, stated in an interview final summer time with The Occasions that she had at all times been cautious to offer solely directions on shopping for and utilizing abortion medicines, and to not present the capsules themselves.
However in February 2020, she stated within the interview, she acquired a determined message from a lady recognized as Anna who was looking for an abortion. The decision from the girl, who, the court docket heard, was in an abusive relationship, revived Ms. Wydrzynska’s personal traumatic reminiscences of a violent relationship and getting an abortion. It prompted her, she stated, to do one thing she had by no means carried out earlier than — ship the girl a bundle of capsules.
“I despatched Anna capsules as a result of I came upon that she had skilled violence like me,” Ms. Wydrzynska instructed the court docket in her closing assertion on Tuesday, barely holding again tears.
The lady’s companion learn the messages between the 2 girls, the court docket heard, and reported Ms. Wydrzynska to the police. She was charged with “possession of medication with out authorization to be able to place them in the marketplace” and “aiding abortion.” The court docket in Warsaw discovered Ms. Wydrzynska responsible of aiding abortion by sending misoprostol capsules, an abortion medicine, and sentenced her to 30 hours of group service a month for eight months.
Ordo Iuris, a Polish Catholic authorized group and anti-abortion group that was registered as a civil occasion within the trial, had demanded jail time for Ms. Wydrzynska however had no authorized proper to take action.
A consultant of the group, Magdalena Majkowska, instructed the court docket on Tuesday that Ms. Wydrzynska’s conviction ought to “be thought to be a major step in the direction of actual respect for the appropriate to lifetime of unborn kids in Poland.”
Ms. Wydrzynska stated the court docket’s justification for its resolution had not been made public.
“I’m harmless,” she stated. “I say it loudly — the state is responsible. It has failed me, Anna, Iza from Pszczyna, Agnieszka from Częstochowa and hundreds of thousands of ladies on this nation,” she added, referring to the ladies who died after having been refused abortions.
