Pro-abortion bill again in the Polish Sejm - The Left wants to protect pro-abortion activists at the cost of unborn children and... women’s safety.

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Another session of the Polish Sejm took place on Wednesday (November 6), with the first reading of a bill to decriminalize abortion, a vote being scheduled for Friday evening. The bill would introduce de facto “abortion on demand” in Poland up to the 12th week of pregnancy, and, in some cases, even up to delivery. The abortionists hope that this time the mobilization of abortion opponents will not be repeated, as they have twice lost votes by a minimal margin. They are counting now on the absence or cowardice of a few MPs, which would offer them a victory.

In order to succeed, they are consistently waging a disinformation campaign to make undecided parliamentarians believe the bill is aimed at saving mothers, when it really would introduce total impunity for abortionists who kill the unborn. In fact, the bill’s authors also seek to abolish criminal liability for aiding and abetting an unlawful abortion resulting in a woman’s death. The project’s authors belong to the Left, which is part of Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s ruling left-liberal coalition in Poland.

Lawyers from the Ordo Iuris Institute have prepared a detailed legal analysis of the Left’s bill, which has already been distributed to all MPs before the vote. However, for a successful outcome, public pressure is also needed to stir the consciences of parliamentarians. At the same time, Ordo Iuris, together with the Center for Life and Family, encouraged every citizen to take part in the “Call an MP” campaign and appeal to the consciences of Polish parliamentarians.

As the leaders of these efforts emphasize, direct conversation and pressure on politicians can make a real contribution to the rejection of this criminal law and the protection of hundreds of thousands of Polish children.

Already twice this year, thanks to a coordinated effort, we have succeeded in battling for the lives of the smallest and most defenseless – unborn children, from whom the ruling coalition wants to take away the right to life! Today, we must repeat the great mobilization of defenders of life and once again block the introduction of an inhumane, barbaric law that would lead to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Polish children.

In April, the Ordo Iuris Institute, together with the Center for Life and Family, initiated the “Call an MP” campaign, which encouraged supporters and donors to call and write emails to MPs to stir their consciences. At the time, major left-wing media noted the campaign and expressed concern that the emails encouraging pressure on MPs circulated to approximately one million people nationwide. As a result, phones in MPs’ offices rang off the hook.

Thanks to the determination of the Ordo Iuris community and the Center for Life and Family, it was possible to stop the introduction of drastic changes in Polish abortion law. Although it seemed that abortion supporters were in the majority in the Sejm, these efforts spurred the bills’ defeat. In July, the pro-life advocates won by a hair’s breadth – just three votes! It was a joint victory and proof that, together, we constitute a great force.

From the beginning, however, it was obvious that this was not the end of the battle, and that it would probably not be long before abortion lobbyists made another attempt to pass new, unconstitutional pro-abortion bills through the Sejm. Unfortunately, these fears quickly materialized.

The basic and most important premise of the Left’s next bill is the decriminalization of unlawful abortion up to the 12th week of pregnancy. It is worth realizing that decriminalization means recognizing that a given act (one currently considered a crime) will no longer be a crime. By contrast, the term “abortion” refers to the intentional deprivation of life of a child developing at the prenatal stage. It has nothing to do with a doctor’s actions to save the endangered life or health of the mother of such a child. Thus, the legislation under discussion is aimed at making it possible in Poland to kill freely unborn children up to the 12th week of pregnancy, as such an act would then be devoid of legal consequences. This violates the provisions of the act of January 7, 1993, on family planning, protection of the human fetus, and conditions for permissible termination of pregnancy. The bill also clearly contradicts the Polish Constitution.

However, this is not the only accusation that should be addressed to the bill's authors. An analysis of the bill’s legislative solutions, prepared by the Ordo Iuris Institute, specifically highlights additional dangers that would arise if this flawed bill were enacted:

• limiting criminal liability for acts that also target the life and health of women, as the purpose of the proposed amendment is to eliminate criminal liability for perpetrators of the crime of aiding or abetting an unlawful abortion;
• abolishing criminal liability under Article 154 § 1 of the Criminal Code for perpetrators of illegal abortion up to the 12th week of pregnancy resulting in the death of the woman, and perpetrators of the crimes of aiding and abetting illegal abortion resulting in the death of the woman.

Thus, the authors of the bill clearly demonstrate that, contrary to media assurances, they are not considering the rights of women, and they are even striving to weaken the protection of these rights. One must realize – and this is clear from the legal analysis – that the only beneficiaries of these proposed solutions would be activists promoting women’s access to abortion, which is not in compliance with Polish law. Under the bill’s provisions, such people would avoid criminal liability, for example, for assisting in an abortion that led to the death of a woman. Thus, this is the group most thoroughly protected by the provisions of the proposed regulation.