Polish activists install first vending machine for abortion pills in Warsaw

Campaigners in Poland have installed what they describe as the world's first parcel locker dedicated to distributing abortion pills, in an effort to help women bypass the country's near-total ban on abortion.

The device, nicknamed the "AbortOmat," has been placed in Warsaw and is painted pink with zebra-striped curtains. It contains 22 compartments and allows women to retrieve medication anonymously by entering a six-digit code, according to the activists behind the project.

Organisers said the locker was designed for people who cannot or do not want to wait several days for pills to arrive by mail, including those dealing with a missed miscarriage or other health complications, as well as those who are concerned about receiving the package at home.

Context of Poland's abortion law

Poland has had some of the strictest abortion laws in the European Union since a 2020 constitutional court ruling effectively banned terminations in cases of foetal abnormality, leaving abortion legal only in narrow circumstances such as rape, incest, or a threat to the mother's life.

Since then, informal and activist-led networks have grown to help women access abortion pills, often by mail from abroad, as a workaround to the restrictions. The Warsaw locker is being presented by its organisers as a new and more direct distribution method within that broader effort.

The initiative is likely to draw a strong response from anti-abortion groups and some government officials, given the contentious political debate over abortion rights that has persisted in Poland in recent years.