News

By Peter J. Smith

  WARSAW, April 16, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A constitutional amendment banning all abortions failed to muster enough votes to pass in the Polish Parliament and has created a political crisis threatening to destroy the ruling conservative coalition reports Polish Radio.

  On Thursday all five amendments guaranteeing the right to life for every citizen from conception to natural death failed to achieve a 2/3 majority or 307 votes from 406 Parliamentarians. Although over 60% of parliamentarians voted for the “right to life” amendment, 27 more votes were required to pass the measure.

“We want Poland to be a truly democratic country where fundamental human rights are respected,” stated Krzysztof Bosak of the League of Polish Families party which initially proposed the amendment.

“The abortion law that we have now is eugenic. It divides people into those who deserve to be born and those who don’t. We cannot accept that in the 21st century. We believe that all people deserve human rights – also those who are disabled.”

  Pro-life advocates believe that the current legal exceptions for abortion may provide abortion advocates a wedge to foist abortion on demand in Poland. In 2003 the UK’s Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC), warned that a move was afoot in the EU to have a right to abortion enshrined in the European Constitution.

“I don’t want to live in a country where you can kill a child before birth just because this child is diagnosed with Down’s syndrome. I would like to see disabled people respected,” feminist Inga Kaluzynska of the Women for Women Foundation told Polish Radio. “Abortion is never a cure for anything. Women who have health or mental problems during pregnancy should be offered help and not the harm and trauma of abortion.”

  Since Poland made abortion illegal in 1993 with the exception of foetal disability, rape, and the life and health of the mother, support for abortion on demand has dropped by half, creating demands for an open debate on the discrimination against people based on their age, health and parentage.

  Polls showed 52.4% of Poles supported the “right-to-life” amendment, with only 15% absolutely opposed to the measure.

  However, the pro-life amendment’s rejection has created political turmoil in the ruling conservative coalition, and liberal opposition parties speculate that the Law and Justice party’s coalition may soon collapse in bitter political infighting.

  Already House Speaker Marek Jurek announced Monday that he was resigning from his position as Speaker, and leaving the ruling Law and Justice party, which he blames for not having given the amendment enough support. Other parliamentarians may follow Jurek if he forms another party.

  Both Donald Tusk, leader of the liberal opposition, and Grzegorz Napieralski of the far-left party, Democratic Left Alliance, rejoiced at the resignation of Jurek and believe the political crisis will deepen over the following weeks and severely weaken the conservatives.
  Artur Zawisza of the Law and Justice party told Polish Radio that while he is proud that over half of Parliament supported the “right to life” amendment to the Constitution he feared “the enemies of the civilization of life will try to use this situation.”

  Nevertheless, the Law and Justice party has vowed to patch up the fissures in the party, and Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski expressed hope that Jurek would change his mind.

  The coalition has protected Poland so far from homosexual and pro-abortion ideologues imposing their vision on the predominately Catholic nation.

  Read related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:

  Polish People Support Pro-Life Constitutional Amendment
  https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/mar/07031207.html

  Poland may End Rape/Incest Abortion Exception
  https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/oct/06102505.html

  UK Pro-Life Group Warns EU Constitution May Establish Continental ‘Right’ to Abortion on Demand
  https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2003/nov/03111101.html