The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that a Polish teenager who was raped and became pregnant should have been given unhindered access to an abortion.
The BBC reports staff at two hospitals in Lublin and another in Warsaw denied her a termination, even though abortion is legal in cases of rape.
The girl, who was 14 when she was raped in 2008, eventually obtained an abortion in Gdansk, after the Ministry of Health intervened in the case.
The court ordered the state to pay the teenager and her mother 61,000 euros in compensation.
Poland's abortion law is among the strictest in Europe. The BBC reports terminations there are permitted only in cases of rape, incest or when the life of the mother or foetus is in danger.
