Penalizacja przerwania ciąży w polskim prawie karnym
Penalisation of termination of pregnancy in Polish criminal law

Summary/Abstract: There is no doubt that abortion is a controversial subject – both in the case of determining the conditions for its legal performance and in the case of making criminal law regulations that penalize crimes related to the termination of pregnancy. The legislator faces the challenge of ensuring protection for two legal goods – the right to live in the prenatal stage of development and the right to self-determination of a pregnant woman. The scope of criminal law penalisation may be narrower or wider and depends on, inter alia, the criminal and social policy of the state. The subject of this paper is provisions penalizing the termination of pregnancy in Polish criminal law. This study aims to describe the field of criminalization of abortion related crime. The research includes an analysis of the statutory features of crimes related to the termination of pregnancy in Polish legal provisions with particular reference to the subject, subjective side of an offence, and object and objective side of an offence. Reference is also made to the criminal sanctions and the statistical data. The main conclusion of this paper is that the normative content and the scope of criminalization of the provisions of the Polish criminal law penalizing crimes related to abortion is a controversial issue and that the interpretation of the legal norms causes problems in legal practice. The analysis is based on views of doctrine and jurisprudence.

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