WARSAW, September 25, 2001 (LSN.ca) – Although the final count is expected tomorrow, it appears that Poland’s ex-communist Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) has failed to win a majority of seats in the parliament and must seek a coalition to form a government. Prior to the elections the SLD was expecting a landslide victory and had already announced a cabinet.
However, just one week before the September 23 general election, Poland’s Catholic Bishops had a letter read in every parish urging Catholics – some 93% of Poles – not to support the country’s so-called “ex-communist” social democrats because of their support for abortion. The SLD has indicated that they would repeal a 1997 law, passed by the AWS-Solidarity government, which restricted abortions to cases of rape or incest, where the fetus is deformed or where the mother’s life is in danger. The law dramatically reduced the number of abortions in the country, which skyrocketed under communist rule.
In related news, Poland’s population has dropped for a third year in a row. The Polish News Bulletin reported last week that the country registered 378,300 births and 368,000 deaths, but the country experienced an overall population decline due to emigration, with emigrants outnumbering immigrants by almost 20,000. Abortion and birth control have brought down the average birthrate in the country to 1.37, far below the 2.1 replacement rate.
See the AFP coverage of the election results: https://english.hk.dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/world/afp/article.html?s=hke/headlines/010925/world/afp/Economic_woes_complicate_Polish_coalition_talks.html
See LifeSite’s coverage of the Bishop’s intervention: https://lsn.ca/ldn/2001/sept/010921.html#2