WARSAW, September 21, 2001 (LSN.ca) – Poland’s Catholic Bishops undertook what may be a historic pro-life intervention into the country’s politics Sunday. Just one week before the September 23 general election, the 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. Polls taken prior to the bishops’ intervention indicated that Poland’s social democrats in the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) were poised to win a landslide victory in Sunday’s election with between 43-52 per cent of the vote.
Without naming the party directly, the bishops warned the faithful against voting for a “party that has an ideological continuity with the communist party that has announced … the intention of re-enacting a law authorizing for social reasons the killing of an unborn baby.” The letter said, “A Catholic society cannot support a political group that has stated directly its intent to introduce laws taking aim against the basic right to life · We must protect values like the sanctity of human life, Christian education for the young generation and family life. Parties which take a completely secular approach to these values and which propose liberal solutions are not able to guarantee this.”
SLD leader Leszek Miller, widely speculated to become Poland’s next Prime Minister, did not dare to chastise the bishops message directly saying only “I believe in the wisdom of the Polish electorate.” The SLD has indicated that they would repeal a 1997 law, passed by the current 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.
See the AFP coverage: https://asia.dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/world/afp/article.html?s=asia/headlines/010916/world/afp/Polish_Catholic_Church_declares_war_on_ex-communists_in_election.html