Women’s-Rights Groups Plan to Deliver Abortion Drugs to Poland by Drone

Four women’s-rights organizations based in Germany and Poland are planning to deliver WHO-approved abortion pills by drone from Germany to a Polish border town.

The drone will carry the drugs from Frankfurt an der Oder to women across the river in the Polish town of Slubice, in a bid to get around Poland’s restrictive abortion laws

The delivery will also hopefully bring attention to the discrepancy between Poland’s abortion laws and those of other European countries, says one of the organizations involved, Women on Waves.

Poland, a staunchly Roman Catholic country, is one of the few places in Europe where women can only get a legal abortion if there is proof of rape or incest, if the mother’s life is endangered, or if the fetus is severely malformed.

The drugs scheduled for delivery on June 27 are mifepristone and misoprostol. They can be taken without medical supervision for pregnancies of less than nine weeks, Women on Waves says. Inducing miscarriage is not an offense under Polish law.

Women on Waves adds that, since the drone won’t be flying through controlled air space and weighs less than 5 kg, it does not require authorization from the Polish or the German government.