Oral postcoital contraception and  pharmacological abortion: product characteristics and basic trade issues in Poland under pharmaceutical law, taking into account the international context

Katarzyna Gęsiak

doi:10.37873/er8x6g98

Oral postcoital contraception and pharmacological abortion: product characteristics and basic trade issues in Poland under pharmaceutical law, taking into account the international context

Katarzyna Gęsiak

Ordo Iuris Institute

Publication:

Protection of human life at the prenatal stage of development: Social, medical and legal aspects

Series: Ordo Iuris Library

DOI: https://doi.org/10.37873/h090a211

Keywords: protection of human life, prenatal stage of development, abortion, conceived child, right to life, contraceptives, maternal mortality, mental health complications of abortion, constitutional standards of protection of life, family planning act

Published: June 17, 2026

The chapter analyses the trade in emergency contraceptives and abortifacient pills, their characteristics, and their status under Polish law, considered in an international context.

Substances used in emergency contraceptive pills have an early abortifacient effect; although Polish regulations market them as contraceptive medicinal products, their nature justifies reclassifying them as abortifacients, whose sale is prohibited by law, as is the online sale of abortion products, requiring enforcement, since in internet crimes the perpetrator's place of operation includes the location of the computer system used. Under EU law, states may prohibit or limit trade in contraceptives and abortifacients, further justified where oral emergency contraception has proven anti-implantation properties.

Polish legislation should be supplemented with a definition of pregnancy differing from the World Health Organization's, reflecting the constitutional principle of protecting life from conception.

Katarzyna Gęsiak, Ordo Iuris Institute

Legal advisor, member of the Chamber of Legal Advisors in Warsaw, Director of the Ordo Iuris Center for Medical Law and Bioethics. Graduate of law studies at the Faculty of Law and Administration of the Jagiellonian University, scholarship holder at Université de Liège in Belgium. She gained experience working in a number of Warsaw law firms. Her current research interests focus on issues related to medical law and human rights.

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How to Cite

Gęsiak, K. (2026) “Oral postcoital contraception and pharmacological abortion: product characteristics and basic trade issues in Poland under pharmaceutical law, taking into account the international context”, in Kwaśniewski, J. (ed.) Protection of human life at the prenatal stage of development: Social, medical and legal aspects. Warszawa: Ordo Iuris Institute for Legal Culture - Scientific Press (Ordo Iuris Library). doi:10.37873/h090a211.