The key facts

  • The 'Abortion Machine' opened in late September at the Abotak center opposite the Polish parliament; the code is issued by the organization Women Help Women after a medical questionnaire
  • Abortion assistance in Poland is punishable by up to three years in prison; activist Justyna Wydrzyńska was convicted in 2023, the verdict was overturned and a retrial ordered
  • In October the Sejm narrowly approved two bills softening the rules, but activists expect a veto from President Karol Nawrocki

A vending machine opposite the parliament

Women's rights activists in Poland have opened, by their own account, the world's first vending machine locker dispensing medication abortion pills. The device has been named the 'Abortion Machine' and is located at the Abotak center — the country's first abortion center, housed in a building opposite the Polish parliament. The activists say the choice of location is a deliberate message to politicians, including Prime Minister Donald Tusk. The machine went into operation in late September and consists of 22 pink compartments: a woman receives a PIN code from the organization Women Help Women after filling out a medical questionnaire that is reviewed by a doctor. Each compartment contains a package usually with two drugs — mifepristone and misoprostol, which are typically used up to the 14th week of pregnancy.

Legal context and risks for activists

Poland and Malta are the only EU countries where abortion on request is banned. In Poland, termination of pregnancy is legal only when the pregnancy results from a crime (rape or incest) or threatens the woman's health or life. Women who have an abortion bear no criminal liability, but helping them is punishable by up to three years in prison. In 2023, Abortion Dream Team activist Justyna Wydrzyńska became the first person in Poland convicted of helping with an abortion — for sending pills to a woman; the verdict was later overturned and a new hearing ordered. Since mifepristone is not registered in Poland, the drug is ordered from abroad. Wydrzyńska's lawyer, Sabrina Mana-Valasek, considers the legal situation 'complicated' but points out that the drug is registered in the EU, and a woman ordering pills for herself and paying for them herself is not committing a crime. Wydrzyńska herself believes the 'Abortion Machine' does not break the law because the pills are dispensed by a machine, not a person, though she admits she is not sure about this.

Opposition and the scale of the work

The ultra-Catholic legal organization Ordo Iuris has notified the prosecutor's office that the activists are committing a crime. Katarzyna Gęsiak, director of its Center for Medical Law and Bioethics, stated that people stand behind the machine: they send codes, order and purchase the pills, and restock the compartments. According to Wydrzyńska, anti-abortion opponents regularly hold actions outside Abotak, making noise with horns and loudspeakers to annoy the neighbors and pressure the landlord into terminating the lease. Meanwhile, the activist network operates on a noticeable scale: another Abortion Dream Team member, Natalia Broniarczyk, says the organization helps about 130 women in Poland daily — around 125 of them use pills costing about €75, while the rest travel to clinics abroad. For comparison: last year only 851 abortions were performed in Polish hospitals.

Political deadlock and the fate of the bills

The opening of the machine comes amid parliamentary stagnation. Tusk promised before the 2023 elections to introduce abortion on request up to the 12th week of pregnancy, but his coalition, which includes leftists and conservatives, failed to agree on a common position, and individual bills did not win approval in 2024. After that, Tusk stated that abortion on request is impossible during the current parliamentary term. Nevertheless, in October two bills were reintroduced in the Sejm and approved by a narrow margin: one restores severe irreversible fetal defects as a ground for legal termination of pregnancy — a ground ruled unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court in 2020 under the Law and Justice government, which triggered mass street protests across the country; the other partially decriminalizes helping a woman terminate a pregnancy. According to an SW Research poll for Onet.pl, nearly 61% of respondents want the PiS-backed president Karol Nawrocki to sign the law on fetal defects as a ground. Nawrocki himself opposes abortion, and both activists expect him to veto both bills. Broniarczyk also expresses dissatisfaction with the inaction of liberals in the coalition and concern about growing support for right-wing parties ahead of next year's parliamentary elections.