This judgment relates to the 2020 ruling of Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal, which effectively restricted access to abortion by banning it in cases of severe or fatal fetal impairment.
The complaint was submitted by A.R., a resident of Kraków, who used a template provided by the Federation for Women and Family Planning after the Constitutional Tribunal’s decision of 22 October 2020. She sought to terminate her pregnancy after doctors detected genetic disorders in the fetus.
According to the European Court of Human Rights, the Constitutional Tribunal’s ruling violated Article 8 of the Convention — the right to respect for private and family life.
Under Article 8, public authorities may interfere with this right only when it is lawful and strictly necessary in a democratic society for reasons such as national security, public safety, economic well-being, the protection of health or morals, or the rights and freedoms of others.
The Court noted that at the time of the ruling, the applicant was 15 weeks pregnant and medical tests confirmed genetic abnormalities in the fetus. She ultimately had the abortion in the Netherlands.
The judges found that the violation resulted from legal uncertainty between the moment the Constitutional Tribunal announced its ruling and the date it was officially published. During this period, no one knew whether abortions due to fetal abnormalities were still legal. This unpredictability was at the heart of the problem.