Press Interpreter

10/08/05 -- A court has ruled that by refusing Malgorzata S. the right to an abortion, a hospital forced her to give birth to a child. She is to be paid 6,500 zlotys [about 2,000 US dollars] of compensation.

Dabrowa Gornicza, 1996. Summer, late at night. Malgorzata S., bartender, slender, tall blonde, is coming back from work. A well-built man runs out of a gate, drags her into brushwood. He hits her and rapes her brutally. Afterward, he lights up a cigarette: - If you tell anyone about it, I will find you.

With her last reserves of energy Malgorzata gets to a gas station, somebody takes her to the police station. The police make an identikit portrait of the offender. He was never apprehended.

After over two months, the woman goes to a gynecologist, who says that she is 10 or 11 weeks pregnant and – as a victim of rape – she has the right to an abortion.

With the referral she goes to the municipal hospital in Dabrowa Gornicza. There, she is refused an abortion. The diagnosis is: 16th week of pregnancy. It would mean that the child was conceived before rape.

Malgorzata goes to a prosecutor in Dabrowa. – I was still shocked. I didn’t want to give birth.

The prosecutor demands reexamination by the first doctor, but – as they both confirm – the notice sent by the prosecutor to the doctor was somehow misplaced.

Time is passing. Malgorzata falls into depression. Her pregnancy, child, and future don't interest her any more.

Eventually it is too late for an abortion. Nine months after the rape a son is born.

After getting out of the hospital, she finds out that the bar went bankrupt. For four years she is jobless. The son is sick frequently. They find it hard to make ends meet. Friends suggest: go to court. They find her a lawyer.

Malgorzata demands from Dabrowa Gornicza district, the owner of the hospital that refused to perform an abortion, 20 thousand zlotys [over 6,000 US dollars] of compensation for violated personal rights. Both the court of first instance and an appeals court dismiss the claim.

Only the Supreme Court admits that the childbirth was an outcome of the rape, but it turns out that in 1996, when Malgorzata was raped, there was an anti-abortion law and no regulation enabling compensation for moral damages (in a similar case a woman from Lomza who was refused prenatal diagnostic tests and gave birth to a disabled child gained in court 60 thousand zlotys [over 18 thousand US dollars] of compensation).

The Supreme Court only decided that Malgorzata has a right to demand money which she lost by not being able to work as a result of pregnancy and childbirth.

The case comes back to the court in Katowice in the fall of last year. Here, for the first time, journalists interview Malgorzata.

Malgorzata: - I don’t regret that I gave birth, I love my son. But it is me who should decide whether to bear him or not. Since I’m deprived of this right, the state should help me, especially because my son is sick.

She always calls him “son�, she is careful not to give away his name. I ask what her son suffers from.

Malgorzata: - Leave him alone! It’s none of your business.

After a moment she adds softly: - We live in a small housing estate, I don’t want us to be recognized, I don’t want my son to be fingered.

She came to the court dressed elegantly, like a student: white blouse, black jacket. She lights another cigarette.

The court in Katowice issued a judgment three weeks ago: 6,500 zlotys [about 2,000 US dollars] on account of earnings lost by Malgorzata.

She wanted 15 thousand [over 4,500 US dollars], but the court – as we found out unofficially – deducted a part of it, because she earned extra money illegally.

Malgorzata has decided to appeal. Yesterday she told me: I’m not putting up with it any longer. I do it only for the child.

[Full article]

By Anna Malinowska

[From the Polish newspaper "Gazeta Wyborcza", No. 235.4938]

--Translated by Cezary Rogula

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http://serwisy.gazeta.pl/wyborcza/1,34513,2958036.html