In Olesnica, Poland, a prosecutor rejected an appeal by former Supreme Court judge Malgorzata Manowska in a case involving a 9‑month abortion performed after a hospital discovered severe fetal bone fragility late in pregnancy.
Abortion at Olesnica Hospital. Prosecutor’s Decision
In April 2024 the Olesnica District Prosecutor’s Office opened a case investigating an abortion carried out in the hospital’s 9th month of pregnancy. The probe was triggered after the pregnant patient’s condition was highlighted in the newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza.
Doctors found the fetus to have a severe bone fragility that was only identified when the woman reached 34 weeks of gestation, a time when the risk that the child would not survive childbirth was already present. Psychiatrists from a Łódź hospital issued a certificate qualifying the woman for the termination.
The pregnancy was ended in October 2023 by gynecologist Gizela Jagielska at the County Hospital Group in Olesnica. In December the prosecutor announced that it would close the investigation on grounds of “absence of evidence of a prohibited act”.
Judge Malgorzata Manowska Files Appeal
In May the prosecutor received a complaint from the former first president of the Supreme Court, Judge Malgorzata Manowska. When the investigation was closed, she lodged an appeal in mid‑December, arguing that criminal procedure code gave her the right to file an appeal as a representative of the institution that had previously lodged the complaint.
Prosecutor Declines Appeal by Unqualified Person
On Tuesday the Wrocław Regional Prosecutor’s Office stated that it would not accept Manowska’s appeal, contending that the complaint was submitted by an unqualified person. The prosecutor explained that a complaint by a state institution must relate to its own activity or a crime discovered during the performance of its duties, and that the First President of the Supreme Court has no competency in media monitoring or filing general criminal complaints on behalf of the court. Accordingly, the criminal proceedings were not initiated on the basis of Manowska’s complaint. The prosecutor’s decision was declared invalid, and Manowska was advised that she could file an appeal with the Court.
Abortion Guidelines and Legal Grounds
According to last year’s guidelines from Poland’s Ministry of Health, abortion on grounds of a woman’s mental health is permissible based on the opinion of a single physician. The law provides two grounds for termination: a threat to life or health, and a justified suspicion that the pregnancy resulted from rape. Threat to health and to life are distinct grounds. The legislation also defines health broadly; therefore, if a psychiatric doctor determines that the woman’s mental health is at risk, the certificate issued by such a doctor is sufficient to justify the termination of pregnancy.