Polish Catholic fundamentalism has claimed another woman's life
Another tragic victim of Poland's new anti-abortion laws died last Tuesday (Jan 25).
Another tragic victim of Poland's new anti-abortion laws died at the end of January 2021. Agnieszka died in the hospital as a result of twin pregnancy complications. Her life could have been saved if she had had an abortion.
On December 21, 2021, the woman was admitted to the Gynecology Department of the Regional Hospital in Czestochowa (southern Poland). She was in the first trimester of a twin pregnancy and was experiencing abdominal pain and vomiting. She has reportedly complained about the pain before, but the doctors dismissed it, telling Agnieszka that twin pregnancy “hurts exactly that way.”
The first time she was in the facility was from December 6 to 13, 2021, and the second time was from December 21 to January 5, 2022. In an official statement, the hospital administration confirms this.
Agnieszka’s condition deteriorated with each passing day. “She arrived fully conscious, in good physical and mental health, and with gynecological complaints.” “We saw how her condition deteriorated day by day through phone conversations,” her family said in their official statement.
The first of the twins died on December 23, 2021, just two weeks after Agnes became ill. However, the dead fetus was not removed by doctors. “(...) the law in Poland expressly prohibits it.” “They waited until the second twin's vital functions stopped spontaneously,” the family wrote.
So Agnieszka carried the dead fetus for another week in her uterus. The second fetus died on December 29, 2021, and two days later, doctors removed both fetuses from her body.
Agnieszka, according to the family, developed a septic infection during this time. There is no mention of sepsis in the medical records, but test results indicate it, according to the woman’s relatives: “That's what we think based on the results, because the CRP test (which indicates inflammation) showed seven units when she arrived at the hospital.” It was already 157.31H the day before she died (the norm is 5).” The woman began to lose consciousness and was eventually moved from the gynecology unit to neurology.
“All the while, she was left with the decomposing bodies of her unborn sons.” “However, they did not forget to notify the priest in time for him to come to the ward and celebrate the children's funeral (!!!)” writes the bereaved family.
The family claims it was difficult to contact the woman because they were denied access to her medical records, and hospital staff allegedly cited a lack of proper authorization.
A cardiac arrest occurred on January 23. The woman was taken in agony to a hospital in Blachownia the next day, where the family was given information about their loved one's condition and access to medical records. It was, however, too late.
Agnieszka died on January 25, 2022, in a hospital in Blachownia, despite efforts to save her life.
“We are devastated, and the pain that we are experiencing is indescribable,” the family writes.
“We have irrefutable evidence of the crime committed, as well as attempts to conceal the causes of Agnieszka's condition and hospital staff giving false information about the twins’ death.
This is yet more evidence that the ruling governments have blood on their hands. Once again, a pregnant, innocent young woman, mother and wife, died, leaving three children orphaned because their mother did not return home. Nobody expected such an escalation of events to happen to her. At this point, who is the criminal entity?
Who is to blame for this harm? What about the hospital? What about the Constitutional Court? Who were the deputies in Poland who voted for the anti-abortion law?”
The Provincial Hospital in Czestochowa admits that after the death of the first child, “a wait-and-see attitude was adopted, because there was a chance to save the second child.”
When journalists inquired about Agnieszka’s case, the Regional Prosecutor's Office in Częstochowa stated that on January 26, 2022, the prosecutor's office opened an investigation into exposing a 37-year-old woman to direct danger of losing her life and health, as well as manslaughter.
Women's rights activists staged another protest in front of the Constitutional Court on January 26 under the banner “Not one more.” The institution has issued a decision that effectively eliminates the possibility of performing the abortion procedure in the fall of 2020. The abortion ban was enacted in Poland shortly after the system was changed, in 1993. It did, however, leave a small legal loophole that allows for the legal removal of a fetus “in special cases.” However, abortion has been illegal in practice for the past two years.
“The abortion ban is lethal. It took another woman’s life. Agnieszka, 37, died during a twin pregnancy because the dead fetus was not removed. How many more victims will be claimed by the inhumane anti-abortion law? How many mothers will have to say goodbye to their daughters? How many orphaned children will there be?” Agnieszka Dziemianowicz-Bąk, a left-wing MP, wrote on Twitter.
Agnieszka’s death follows that of Izabela, a woman who died in September 2021 after being denied medical attention when her waters broke in the 22nd week of her pregnancy. Her family claims she was denied an abortion or a caesarean section and that the hospital cited the country’s abortion laws. An investigation determined that “medical malpractice” contributed to Izabela’s death, and the hospital was… fined.
The author is a Polish-Bulgarian journalist, translator, and publisher. In the late 1990s, he was active in the Polish left, and later in the labor movement, particularly in the All-Poland Trade Union Alliance, Poland's largest labor confederation (OPZZ). Until 2012, he was the weekly magazine's editor-in-chief. Later, he worked as the deputy editor of Strajk.eu, and since 2008, he has been the Polish correspondent for Bulgarian National Radio. He founded The Barricade.