Court upholds jail terms for doctors over death of pregnant woman that sparked mass protests in Poland

An appeals court has upheld prison sentences handed last year to two doctors for their negligence in treating a pregnant woman who died in hospital under their care. It also issued an even tougher sentence to the acting head of the ward she was treated in.

The case in question, which involved the death of a 30-year-old woman called Izabela in 2021, prompted mass protests against Poland’s near-total abortion ban, which had been introduced earlier that year and which many blamed for Izabela’s death.

However, conservative groups argued that the tragedy was caused by individual medical negligence, rather than the abortion law, and say that the rulings in this case confirm it.

Izabela was admitted to hospital in the 22nd week of her pregnancy following a premature rupture of membranes. Her foetus, which had severe developmental defects, subsequently died, and then so did Izabela herself soon after due to septic shock.

During her stay in hospital, Izabela wrote messages to her family saying that doctors had decided to “wait until [the foetus] dies”. She linked their decision to the abortion law and complained of being treated as an “incubator”.

However, supporters of the abortion law note that it still allows pregnancies to be terminated if they threaten the health or life of the mother.

Prosecutors subsequently charged three doctors with professional negligence that endangered their patient’s life. One of them was additionally accused of manslaughter. In July last year, the district court in Pszczyna, the town where Izabela was from, found all three of them guilty.

Two gynaecologists who were on duty during Izabela’s treatment – and have been named only as Michał M. and Andrzej P. under Polish privacy law – received prison sentences of one year and three months and one year and six months respectively.

Krzysztof P., who was acting head of the department in which she was treated, was handed a sentence of one year in prison, suspended for two years. All three were also given temporary bans on practising medicine, ranging from four to six years.

The doctors appealed against their sentences, as did prosecutors, who wanted a tougher punishment for Krzysztof P.

Today, the district court in Katowice, which heard the case, upheld the sentences handed to Michał M. and Andrzej P. while upgrading Krzysztof P.’s sentence to one year in jail, not suspended.

The case was held behind closed doors, with only the verdict made public, but not the justification. A lawyer representing Izabela’s family, Jolanta Budzowska, welcomed the ruling, in particular the fact that the appeals court had recognised the responsibility of Krzysztof P.

The doctors had “breached basic medical duties and ethical principles” and “failed to make any effort to save the young woman’s life”, she told the Polish Press Agency (PAP).

Meanwhile, Magdalena Majkowska, a board member of conservative legal group Ordo Iuris, said that the ruling highlighted how the “abortion lobby” had “organised a massive disinformation campaign around this tragedy” by blaming the abortion law.

In fact, the court’s decisions show that “specific individuals’ errors were to blame” for Izabela’s death, said Majkowska.

An inspection of the hospital in Pszczyna shortly after Izabela’s death found “a series of irregularities” in the treatment of pregnant women. It was fined 650,000 zloty (€138,000) as a result.

Poland’s commissioner for patients’ rights, Bartłomiej Chmielowiec, said at the time that the hospital had failed to provide Izabela with proper care or even keep her properly informed of her condition.

Meanwhile, Donald Tusk – who was then an opposition leader and is now the prime minister – blamed Izabela’s death on the tightening of the abortion law. He accused the then-ruling national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party of “selling itself to a religious sect”.

When Tusk’s coalition came to power in December 2023, it pledged to liberalise the abortion law. However, it has so far been unable to do so owing to disagreements between more conservative and liberal elements of the ruling camp on what form any new law should take.

Izabela’s death is one of a number that activists have blamed on Poland’s tightened abortion laws, which they argue make doctors even more reluctant to terminate pregnancies for fear of facing legal consequences.

In May last year, three doctors were charged over the death of another pregnant woman, Dorota, at a hospital in Nowy Targ in 2023. That tragedy prompted further mass protests.

After Dorota’s death, the PiS health minister, Adam Niedzielski, reminded doctors that “every woman whose life or health is threatened at any moment of her pregnancy has the right to terminate it” and set up a special team to work on “how to avoid mistakes during care of pregnant women”.

Last year, Tusk’s government published new guidelines for when and how abortions can be carried out, with the aim of ensuring that doctors and prosecutors “take the women’s side” when making decisions on the issue.

Daniel Tilles

Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.