ASTRA Network categorically condemns the actions of the Russian military forces in Ukraine. As ASTRA Network, we bring together organisations from Central and Eastern Europe – a region so dramatically affected by Russian authorities’ actions in both recent times and history. Rule of fear and violence took a toll on most […]
 Today marks the first anniversary of the Polish abortion ban coming to life. On January 27, 2021, a ban on abortion in case of foetal malformations was imposed in Poland, a country with one of the most restrictive anti-abortion laws in Europe. New legislation came as a result of a “ruling” by the […]
Yesterday, on 13th January, Polish Sejm voted in favour of the so-called “Lex Czarnekâ€, nicknamed after the Minister of Education and Science PrzemysÅ‚aw Czarnek who presented the draft bill to the Parliament. The new law changes, among others, the ways of inviting NGOs to schools to offer extracurricular activities. All organisation will now […]
Last week, the Polish Minister of Health Andrzej Niedzielski issued a draft ministerial ordinance that – if passed – would digitalize all patients’ data in a system administrated by the Minister himself. The System of Medical Information is to include details regarding pregnancy and any “foreign objects inserted into the bodyâ€, including IUDs […]
Yesterday, on October 11, Slovakia rejected an anti-abortion bill proposed by Ordinary People, the senior party in the coalition government. The bill was rejected by one vote, with 67 of the present 134 lawmakers (out of 150 members of the Parliament) voting in favor of it. Among changes the bill was to introduce a prolongation […]
On 29 October 2021 attorney J. Budzowska, who deals with medical error cases announced the death of 30 years old woman, Izabela. 22 weeks’ pregnant woman was said to have been taken to the hospital with an amenorrhea (lack of amniotic fluid). The woman was married and had one daughter. According to the […]
Yesterday, on 1st November, crowds gathered outside of the Constitutional Tribunal in Poland and in town squares of tens of other cities. A few days earlier a tweet was published, marking the moment we all feared since the abortion-banning so-called ruling. The first pregnant woman died because she was denied medical care because […]
Moldova has ratified the Istanbul Convention, 4 years after initial signing of the document. The Convention is universally recognized as a vital tool for combating gender-based violence, coming with a comprehensive framework for systemic actions targeting violence against women and girls. Moldova will now start the process of enforcing a set of legal and […]
The following is a reprint from our Polish member organisation, Federation for Women and Family Planning. For the full article, including the list of the call’s signatories, go to Federa’s website. Polish Parliament is about to discuss introducing further restrictions in the extreme anti-abortion law – read more in our previous entry. […]
A Polish NGO called Pro-Prawo do Å»ycia (Pro-The right to life) filed a civil draft bill (reportedly signed by over 130 000 Polish citizens) in the Parliament today. If passed, the new law would ban abortion with no exceptions. The draft bill proposes to criminalise abortion, meaning the person terminating their own pregnancy […]
Slovak Parliament is to discuss another draft law aiming to limit access to abortion in the country in the upcoming days. The draft law (Print no. 665) was proposed by a group of MPs from OĽANO (Ordinary People and Independent Personalities), a leading governmental party. It proposes a number of amendments into various laws […]
Daniela Draghici knows firsthand what an abortion ban looks like. In 1976, when she was a college student in the Romanian capital of Bucharest, she got pregnant after her contraception failed. Abortion was prohibited in Romania. With the help of a friend, Draghici was taken to a woman with no medical training to […]
ASTRA Secretariat
Federation for Women and Family Planning
Nowolipie 13/15
00-150 Warsaw, Poland
ph/fax +48 22 635 93 95
email federa@astra.org.pl / info@astra.org.pl
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