without asking whether she wished to see him. During the conversation, it became clear
that the priest had already been informed about the pregnancy and its circumstances.
He tried to convince P. to carry the pregnancy to term and asked her to give him her
mobile phone number, which she did. S. was requested by the head gynaecologist to
sign a consent form to the abortion which warned that the abortion could lead to her
daughter’s death. Ultimately, after an argument with S., the head gynaecologist refused
to allow the abortion to be performed in her ward, relying on her religious views.
The Lublin hospital issued a press release to the effect that it would not perform an
abortion in P.’s case. Journalists who contacted the hospital were informed of the
circumstances of the case. A number of articles were published by various local and
national newspapers and the case was the subject of discussions on the internet.
The applicants subsequently travelled to Warsaw, where P. was admitted to a hospital on
3 June 2008. She was informed there that she could have an abortion on the basis of the
certificate issued by the prosecutor and a medical certificate issued by the national
consultant in gynaecology, but that she would have to wait three days before it could be
performed. In the meantime, a doctor told her that the hospital was facing pressure by
various people not to perform the abortion and that it had received numerous e-mails
criticising the applicants for their decision. P. also received text messages from the priest
and from people unknown to her trying to convince her to change her mind about the
abortion.
Feeling manipulated and helpless, the applicants left the hospital on 5 June 2008. They
were harassed by anti-abortion activists and were eventually taken to a police station,
where they were questioned for several hours. On the same day, the police was
informed of a decision by the Lublin Family Court. That court had ordered P.’s placement
in a juvenile shelter as an interim measure in proceedings to divest S. of her parental
rights, stating in particular that P. was under pressure from her mother to have an
abortion, which she did not wish to have herself. Subsequently, the police drove P. to
Lublin, where she was placed in a juvenile shelter the same night. Suffering from pain,
she was taken to hospital the following day, where she stayed for a week.
Having complained to the Ministry of Health, S. was eventually informed that P. could
undergo an abortion in Gdańsk, approximately 500 kilometres from their home in Lublin.
According to the applicants, they were driven there in a clandestine manner and the
abortion was carried out on 17 June 2008.
The proceedings before the Family Court were discontinued in February 2009, P. having
testified that she had not been forced by her mother to have an abortion and the court
holding that there were no grounds for divesting her parents of their parental rights.
Criminal proceedings against P. on suspicion of sexual intercourse with a minor,
instituted in July 2008, were discontinued in November 2008. A criminal investigation
against the alleged perpetrator of the rape was equally discontinued.
Complaints, procedure and composition of the Court
The applicants complained that their rights under Article 8 (right to respect for private
and family life and the home) had been violated both by the absence of a comprehensive
legal framework guaranteeing P.’s timely and unhindered access to abortion under the
conditions set out by the applicable laws, and as a result of the disclosure of information
about the case to the public. Relying on Article 5 § 1 (right to liberty and security), they
complained that P.’s removal from the custody of her mother and placement in a juvenile
shelter and later in a hospital was unlawful. They further submitted that the
circumstances of the case had given rise to a violation of Article 3 (prohibition of
inhuman or degrading treatment).