The human toll of Poland's strict abortion laws

SINCE A 2020 RULING BY THE country's Constitutional Tribunal, Poland has had a near-total ban on abortion. There have been mass women-led protests ever since.

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The consequences of the reproductive-rights rollback have been dire, as doctors hesitate to take lifesaving steps for pregnant patients. Krzysztof Sowinski (bottom left) still cries every day since his wife Marta, who was five months pregnant, died of sepsis in 2022; he believes doctors waited to act until the fetus' heart had stopped. Janusz Kucharski (top left) also lost his partner Justyna to sepsis in the fifth month of a pregnancy. She left behind two boys.