Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection has sent a letter to the Ministry of Health indicating the obligation of the Ministry regarding the implementation of the Law on the Exercise of the Right to Health Care by Children and Pregnant Women.

The Commissioner deems that public statements of managers and representatives of some medical institutions, including individual physicians, indicate possible misunderstanding of the content of the Law, in particular the obligations under Article 5 relating to the notification of the National Fund of abortions and stillbirths.

Therefore, the Commissioner believes that it would be advisable for the Ministry to properly point out to all health facilities and physicians that the Law on the Exercise of the Right to Health Care by Children and Pregnant Women contains grounds for processing the data of only those pregnant women and new mothers who exercise their right to health insurance under that Law. Thus, the duty to provide information about abortions and stillbirths applies only to women who are entitled to health care under this particular Law (without it they cannot exercise the right deriving from the mandatory health insurance). Also, the processing of the data can be performed solely for the purpose of determining the termination of the insured status due to non-compliance with the requirements for eligibility. Processing for other purposes, especially the establishment of any "registers" or a specific database of women who have had abortions and the like would be completely illegal, and would certainly constitute an act sanctioned under the law, and quite probably a criminal offence.