SILENT protests have taken place across Poland after the death of a 30-year-old woman was linked to newly tightened abortion laws in the country.

A polish hospital on Tuesday said that doctors and midwives did everything they could to save the 22-week pregnant woman, identified only as Izabela, and the foetus after she suffered septic shock.

A lawyer for the family said that doctors did not perform an abortion even though her foetus was lacking amniotic fluid, and that the tighter abortion restrictions meant that the doctors waited too long to act.

Reproductive rights activists say she is the first person to die as a result of a recent restriction of Poland’s abortion law.

Izabela died in September, but her case was only made public on Friday, triggering protests in Warsaw, Krakow and elsewhere since.

Before the new restrictions, women in Poland could have abortions only if the pregnancy results from a crime like rape, if the woman’s life is at risk, or in the case of severe foetal deformities.

But the Constitutional Tribunal, under the influence of Poland’s conservative ruling party, ruled last year that abortions for congenital defects were not constitutional.

Women’s rights activists say doctors in Poland now wait for a foetus with no chance of survival to die in the womb rather than perform an abortion.

Antonina Lewandowska from the Federation for Women and Family Planning told the BBC: “I think the ruling has made it more complicated for hospitals because medical professionals are terrified now.

“They don’t know the law inside out. They only know there is a ban on abortion, and they are scared to act.”

The hospital said that prosecutors were investigating the case, adding that “all medical decisions were made taking into account the legal provisions and standards of conduct in force in Poland.”