Number of Children Dying in Polish Hospitals Is Rising Rapidly — Mainly Due to Abortions for “Psychological Reasons”

Increase in the number of abortions on health grounds

In late December 2025, the Polish Sejm received the Council of Ministers’ report on the implementation and the effects of applying, in 2024, the Act of January 7, 1993 on Family Planning, Protection of the Human Fetus and the Conditions for the Admissibility of Termination of Pregnancy (Journal of Laws of 2022, item 1575) The document includes, among other things, information on the number of abortions performed in 2024 and the reasons for those procedures. Since Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal issued its judgment of October 22, 2020, K 1/20, termination of pregnancy is permissible in Poland only in two cases—when the pregnancy poses a threat to the life or health of the mother (art. 4a par. 1 point 1 of Act on family planning) and when there is a reasonable suspicion that the pregnancy resulted from a prohibited act (art. 4a par. 1 point 3of Act on family planning). As shown by data collected from government reports, over the years the abortion rate on the grounds of suspected criminal offense has remained at a very similar level of just a few cases per year. By contrast, the rate of abortions performed under the so-called health exception has changed dramatically—since the change of government, in December 2023, it has risen sharply and has almost reached parity with the level of abortions performed on “eugenic grounds” before that basis was found by the Constitutional Tribunal in 2020 to be inconsistent with the Constitution of the Republic of Poland. The conclusion can only be that the health-risk ground is quickly replacing the repealed eugenic ground, and the Polish Ministry of Health’s abortion guidelines issued in late August 2024 are primarily to blame for this situation, together with the government’s financial blackmail against hospitals that would refuse to fully enforce those unlawful guidelines.

Massive increase in the number of unborn children being killed

According to the Council of Ministers’ report on the implementation of the provisions of the Act on Family Planning, Protection of the Human Fetus and the Conditions for the Admissibility of Termination of Pregnancy in 2024, there were as many as 882 cases of termination of pregnancy in Polish hospitals “in cases where the pregnancy posed a threat to the life or health of the pregnant woman,” and this number for the whole of 2025, which has not been published yet, is now expected to be much higher. For comparison, according to the Council of Ministers’ report for 2023, there were 423 such cases, and in the Council of Ministers’ report for 2022, the number indicated was 159. These data show that since the change of government, we have been witnessing an outright epidemic of alleged illnesses among pregnant women that are supposed to justify abortion. It is very well known that among such “conditions,” the primary ones are mental health disorders reported by women, on the basis of which psychiatrists issue medical certificates that are subsequently used by pro-abortion gynecologists to kill children who are unwanted, for example due to an unfavorable prenatal diagnosis. However, knowledge about the specific reasons for killing unborn children does not come from government reports—they do not state the exact reason for which the pregnancy was terminated (the killing of the child) but are limited to the general indication “threat to the life or health of the pregnant woman.” One can learn from the information provided by individual hospitals whether the basis for depriving an unborn child of life was a real threat to the mother’s life or, for example, a transient or curable condition.

At the hospital in Oleśnica, unborn children are killed en masse.

Given the soaring number of abortions in Poland on the grounds of pregnant women’s health, one might get the impression that over the past two years these women have become an exceptionally ailing social group. Although the government data cited above might suggest that the reality is entirely different. Perhaps an extreme, yet certainly representative of the phenomenon as a whole, is the example of the hospital in Oleśnica, which until recently employed Gizela Jagielska, who repeatedly boasted about the number of abortions she performed, and ultimately became notorious for the brutal killing of a nine-month-old unborn child, which, in the opinion of Ordo Iuris lawyers, should be classified as murder rather than abortion. From the information provided by the hospital in Oleśnica in response to a request for public information it follows that in 2024 a total of 159 abortions on alleged psychiatric grounds were performed there, of which as many as 144 pregnancy termination procedures (killing the child) were carried out on children with a diagnosed disease or defect. The conclusion is obvious: The procedure, illegal since 2020, of killing unborn children diagnosed with a disease or an abnormality has taken the form of medical interventions carried out in relation to mental ailments declared by women who want to get rid of their “defective” child through abortion. Adding to this tragic picture is the fact that the basis for performing such a high number of abortions at the Oleśnica hospital consisted solely of “referrals to specialist clinics and medical certificates from psychiatrists with a diagnosis of F.43.2—adjustment disorders” of the aborted children’s mothers. It is thus officially this kind of psychological discomfort that has led to the mass killing of unborn children not only in Oleśnica but also in other public hospitals.

Consequences of the Tusk government’s unlawful pro-abortion policy

It is also worth asking what explains the sudden increase in abortions in 2024 under the pretext of a threat to women’s mental health? Although, of course, there may be more factors, the government’s unlawful pro-abortion policy is undoubtedly responsible for this state of affairs, particularly that of the Ministry of Health, which was arguably most fully expressed in the late-August 2024 “Guidelines on the Applicable Legal Provisions Concerning Access to the Procedure for Termination of Pregnancy.” The content of the guidelines clearly suggests that a certificate from a psychiatrist (regardless of the severity or type of the alleged condition) may be a sufficient basis for terminating a pregnancy (killing an unborn child), and that its validity and reliability should not be questioned or even verified. Since the guidelines have no legal force, former Minister of Health Izabela Leszczyna “secured” their implementation by hospitals and individual physicians with the threat of incurring financial penalties provided for in the amended provisions of the regulation of September 8, 2015 on the general terms and conditions of contracts for the provision of health care services (Journal of Laws of 2023, item 1194, as amended). As a result, even hospitals and doctors who disagree with the Ministry of Health’s guidelines are afraid to exercise their rights and freedoms—especially the conscience clause—to object to unethical medical procedures. They fear that doing so could expose hospitals to financial penalties from the National Health Fund (NFZ) and, indirectly, limit patients’ access to services if funding is withdrawn.

You can change the minister, but that won’t change anything…

Given the recent change in the position of Minister of Health, one could argue that the Ministry of Health and the government are not currently responsible for the growing wave of killings of unborn children affected by disease or congenital abnormalities, since the author of the 2024 guidelines is no longer in charge of government health policy. As it turns out, nothing could be further from the truth. While the current Minister of Health certainly cannot be held responsible for issuing flawed and unlawful guidelines, it has become clear that in this regrettable respect there is full continuity at the Ministry of Health. At the beginning of December 2025, lawyers from Ordo Iuris petitioned the new Minister of Health, Jolanta Sobierańska-Grenda, for the revocation of the unlawful guidelines, citing a number of substantive arguments grounded in applicable law, case law, and legal doctrine. In its letter of refusal, the Ministry of Health did not even attempt a constructive rebuttal of the Ordo Iuris Institute’s position, limiting itself to repeating the erroneous claims and recommendations from the guidelines. Well, as you can see, this is what happens when there is no room for a substantive discussion, because political commitments prevail over the rule of law and plain common sense.

Attorney Katarzyna Gęsiak – Director of the Ordo Iuris Institute’s Center for Medical Law and Bioethics.

Read also:

• Polish Prosecutors Must Pursue Charges Against Abortion “Clinic,” Judge Rules
• How Should Polish Hospitals React to the Tusk Government’s Unlawful Abortion Guidelines? Ordo Iuris Presents a New Guide
• Abortion Guidelines From Tusk Government Constitute Incitement to Murder – Ordo Iuris Notifies Prosecutor’s Office
• My Voice, My Choice? Why the EU Should Not Finance Abortion

Source of cover photo: Adobe Stock