Judgment concerning Poland
In the case of A.R. v. Poland the Court held that there had been a violation of the right to respect for private and family life.
The case concerned restrictions on abortion rights in Poland.
In a judgment of 22 October 2020, the Constitutional Court declared unconstitutional provisions of the Law on family planning, protection of the human foetus and conditions permitting the termination of pregnancy, which had allowed for legal abortion in the event of foetal abnormalities.
The judgment was not published until 27 January 2021. The ruling prompted widespread protests, including demonstrations involving thousands of participants all over the country.
At the time of the delivery of the Constitutional Court’s judgment, the applicant had been 15 weeks pregnant. Results of medical tests confirmed that the foetus suffered from a genetic disorder. She travelled to the Netherlands where the pregnancy was terminated in a private clinic.
The Court found that the interference with the applicant’s rights had been the result of the situation of considerable uncertainty in the time between the Constitutional Court’s judgment being handed down in 2020 and its publication in 2021. It had been unclear during that time whether the restrictions on abortion on the grounds of foetal abnormalities had already taken effect or if abortion could still be legally performed.
The interference with the applicant’s rights had not been “in accordance with the law”, owing to both the composition of the bench of the Constitutional Court which had given the judgment of 22 October 2020 and because there been a lack of foreseeability required under Article 8, owing to the general uncertainty as regards the applicable legal framework caused by the delay in the publication of the Constitutional Court’s ruling. It followed that there had been a violation of that provision.