Poland Drops Case Against Abortionist Who Killed 9-Month-Old Baby

Polish prosecutors have dropped their criminal investigation into a doctor who terminated the life of a 9-month-old unborn baby in a late-term abortion.

It’s a decision that pro-life advocates decry as a failure to protect the most vulnerable while shifting legal scrutiny to a pro-life politician who protested the abortion.

The case against Gizela Jagielska was discontinued this week, with authorities citing a “lack of the elements of a prohibited act,” allowing her to evade charges for doing the abortion in October 2024 at a hospital in Oleśnica.

The abortion was done on a woman named Anita and her full-term baby. She learned late in her pregnancy that her child might suffer from congenital bone fragility, a condition pro-life groups argue does not justify taking an innocent life. Under Poland’s strict abortion laws, abortions are permitted only if the pregnancy results from a crime like rape or incest, or if it poses a threat to the mother’s life or health — with no gestational time limits in cases of health risks.

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A 2020 Constitutional Court ruling clarified that diabilities do not qualify as a health threat to the mother, yet prosecutors found no violation in this instance.

Anita’s initial request for an abortion was denied by a hospital in Łódź, which instead offered a caesarean birth and postnatal treatment for the child.

She obtained a psychiatric certificate falsely declaring the pregnancy a risk to her mental health and, with assistance from a pro-abortion NGO, was transferred to Oleśnica where Jagielska carried out the abortion.

The decision to drop the case comes amid ongoing controversy, including Jagielska’s announcement that she is leaving the Oleśnica hospital after her contract was not renewed. In a social media post, she wrote: “After 10 years of building the maternity ward in Oleśnica from scratch, you will no longer find me there. This is not my decision.”

In an interview with broadcaster Tok FM, Jagielska suggested the move “had been planned for some time” and that “politics might have played a role,” adding, “it seems that it’s simply more convenient for me not to be there.”

Her husband, the head physician in the same department, is also departing.

Meanwhile, attention has turned to Grzegorz Braun, a conservative member of the European Parliament and former presidential candidate, who now faces trial for his confrontation with Jagielska.

In April 2025, Braun entered the hospital, attempted a citizen’s arrest by preventing the doctor from leaving her office, and called police, protesting what he saw as an unlawful killing.

Prosecutors charged him with deprivation of liberty, violating bodily integrity by pushing and holding her down, as well as insulting and slandering her.

The European Parliament voted last month to lift Braun’s immunity, paving the way for his prosecution in Poland.