Kasia Strek

Ela (33) comes from a very catholic family. For several years she has been treated for gynaecological problems, she had 3 operations on her right ovary and has had three miscarriages. Her last pregnancy was in danger from the beginning. After the me

At 7:00 am Polish women are all in the gynaecological waiting room. They are often surprised by the number of people present. Klaudia (22) and Kuba (21), came from Bialystok distant 800 km from Prenzlau. The journey took them 28 hours. The doctor th

After the abortion women stay for a medical check-up before going back to Poland. Dr. Rudzinski, Pole living in Germany for 30 years and a head of the department of gynaecology is very accessible to his patients, at each appointment he tries to make

Joanna (27) is in 12th week of her pregnancy, she felt very badly from the beginning. During prenatal research her child was diagnosed with Edwards' syndrome, a chromosomal disease most of the time resulting in the prenatal death. Despite the theore

Maria (32) aborted 10 years ago. The gynaecologist found by her mother gave her a pill and made an injection. The pills cost 400 euro, the gynaecologist counted the money three times before speaking to her. She was given a pill to swallow and she re

The town of Prenzlau in Germany is located only 50 km from the border with Poland. The public hospital is one of the main foreign clinics where Polish women go for abortions, there are between 20 to 30 women each week. In Germany abortion is legal a

Anna / Piotr (41) is a transgender person, a lesbian and a mother of an 18-year-old boy with Down’s syndrome. He grew up in a small town where she discovered her sexuality. After several sexual intercourses with women he did not really know that he

Kaja (23) was drugged and raped during a party in her village. She did not remember anything and found out a month and a half later that she was pregnant. Despite her mother's persuasions, she was determined not to keep the child, she wanted a diffe

Misoprostol and Mifepristone are drugs used by women to terminate pregnancy pharmacologically. One is accessible in Poland under the form of medication for osteoarthritis, the other one is prohibited. Pills are therefore sent to women by foreign org

Karolina, a lawyer specializing in reproductive rights, and Natalia, researcher at the university and a feminist very involved in the battle for legal abortion in Poland have been friends for several years. In a hotel room after a day of travel and

The procedure is performed with a vacuum method, the most modern and the fastest abortion method. One hour before, each patient is given a medication that softened the inside of the uterus to facilitate access during the procedure. The operation las

A street art painting designed by Marta Frej, a socially engaged illustrator, was painted in the centre of Warsaw to commemorate the Black Monday marches held in October 2016. More than 100,000 people protested against the tightening up of the anti-

Justyna (43) aborted 10 years ago. She is a mother of three children and lives in a small town 100 km from Warsaw. Today, along with a few other women, she runs "Women in Web", a phone line and the only Internet forum for women who want to organize

Most often women come to the clinic accompanied by their spouses. In Poland a woman who has aborted is not penalized, but all the people who help her to abort can risk up to 3 years in prison. Even though in reality since implementation of the law 2

On access to abortion in Poland

In October 2016 about 100 thousand women and men in Poland went on the streets all over the country to protest against a bill of total ban of abortion. After this moment, as a young Polish woman, fortunate enough to never have to face this challenge, I decided to investigate what does it mean for a woman to abort in a country in the middle of Europe with so restricted reproductive rights.

Poland, a country with a powerful influence of the Catholic Church, has one of the most restrictive legislation on abortion in Europe. Abortion for economic or social reasons was permitted in the country until the 1993. Today, the procedure is theoretically permitted only when the mother's health is in danger, in case of rape and in case of serious foetal pathology. In reality, even in these cases, access remains almost impossible forcing women to travel to the clinics abroad, or for those less wealthy, to order abortive pills through internet or take medicine for arthritis or stomach ulcers that cause them miscarriages.

Kasia Strek

Kasia Strek is a polish photojournalist based between Paris and Warsaw, member of the CIRIC photography agency. She studied fine arts and photography at Academy of Fine Arts in Lodz, Poland, National School of Fine Arts in Lyon, France and Queensland College of Art in Brisbane, Australia. Her photography practice focuses on subjects related to social inequalities, the environmental issues and the impact of human activity on disadvantaged communities. Photography is for her the way of taking action, of engaging in society and of directing attention to the issues that are not given enough importance. She divides her work between assignments for press, NGOs and development of personal projects.

She is currently working in the Philippines on the second chapter of her long term project “My Choice Anyway” treating about human consequences of restricted access to abortion in the countries where the procedure is partly or completely forbidden.