The mental health cost of Poland’s abortion ban

Seven months after severe restrictions against abortion came into effect, women are struggling with the emotional toll of the near-total ban.

Listen to this story: When Dominika Biernat took to the streets last October, joining the huge public protests against Poland’s near-total ban on abortion, little did she know that in a few months she would become one of its victims. A single woman and a successful actress with one of Warsaw’s most renowned theatre companies, her pregnancy was not planned. But the father was a good friend and when she found out, the 39-year-old thought it could be one of her last chances to become a mother.