On June 14th Agata and her mother has left the hospital, where the girl was staying for the last few days after she had strong abdominal pains. During that stay the drugs to sustain pregnancy has been administered to her.

Finally the Court gave her a permission to temporarily come back home under custody of her parents until final decision is made.

On 16^th June late night the Minister of Health announced on TV that one of the state clinics was identified where abortion would be performed. The name and the location of the clinic was to remain secret for the sake of Agata and her family. The next day in the early afternoon abortion was finally carried out. In the afternoon the Catholic Information Agency informed that the abortion was performed in Gdansk city. Who gave the information to the Catholic Agency it remains unclear. This information about abortion was repeated in every tv station.

On June 18^th Court decided to prolong the Agata stay at home with her parents until the final Family Court decision. The case (accusation of her mother that she doesn’t provide adequate care to her) will be examined later on.

Soon after that news reported that pro-life activists appealed to Bishop Zygmunt Ziomowski to excommunicate the Minister of Health from Catholic Church. The idea of excommunication has been debated for a couple of days in the media.

The prosecutor is investigating the case whether nobody pressured the girl to abort. The head of the Federation for Women and Family Planning has been already interviewed by the Police on this very topic.

Previous informations about Agata's case: http://www.astra.org.pl/news.php?id=11235 and http://www.astra.org.pl/news.php?id=11457

Polish Delegation in the Socialist Group of the European Parliament along with ASTRA - Central and Eastern European Women’s Network for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights would like to invite you to the:

Hearing on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) in Europe

During the meeting ASTRA will present findings of the new report  on “Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights in Europe – Report to the European Union”. ASTRA members from Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Slovakia, Croatia, Bulgaria, Romania, Russia, Ukraine, Armenia, Georgia will highlight key SRHR issues.
The meeting will provide the forum for the debate between  MEPs and NGOs on priority issues in SRHR field in Europe, especially, in the context of the growing opposition. It is aimed at developing recommendations  concerning the observance and the advancement of SRHR in our region.

Public Hearing on Abortion took place in the European Parliament, on the 18th October 2005. Several women from EU member countries were witnessedin the EU Parliament talking about no access to safe and legal abortion in their countries and what kind of dramas it lead to. The meeting focused on the women situation in Irealand, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia and Spain.

One of the witnesses - Alicja (Polish citizen) decided to complaint at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg and in February 2005 the court communicated the case to the Polish government and requested that a number of specific questions be replied. The case is still open.

Written Declaration on women's rights to self-determinatin and adequate sexual education and family planning in the European Union. 

The declaration is an initiative of the 5 MEPs - Katalin Levai, Anne van Lancker, Anna Hedh, Lena Ek, Martine Roure.

The document calls on the Commission and the Member States connected with the women’s rights to access throughout the EU to accurate information, comprehensive sexuality education and family planning to prevent unwanted pregnancy and to access to high-quality women-centered care and services on reproductive health including abortion. Signatures under the letter will be collected among the MEPs for 3 month.

Hungarian Solidarity demonstration against breaking the Human Rights in Poland by the new Polish government. Budapest, 9.12.2005. 

Solidarity demonstration took place on 9th December between 19 and 20:30 in the front of the Polish Embassy. It was a response to the "Equality March" suppressed by Policee in Poznan, Poland in November. The organisers of Poznan event wanted to march trough streets  to protests agains all forms of discrimination including discrimination of sexaual minorities, but first they did not receive persmision for the event, and then after they decided to hold the even any way were violentely stoped by the Police.