"You can't allow this atrocious statement to be accepted. It is against the basic human rights, against respect of dignity, life and health of every woman" - over 40 organisations from Poland and over 80 from all over the world write to deputies. On Thursday there will be first reading (a part of a legislation process) of the restrictive civil draft about complete prohibition of abortion.
The draft of the statement, created by a foundation Pro - Prawo do Życia (eng. Pro - The Right to Life), provides prohibition of an abortion in all three cases in which it is allowed in Poland. These cases are:
- The pregnancy is a result of a rape
- It threatens life or health of the woman
- In case of a serious and inversible damage of the fetus or a terminal disease which threatens its life.
(I truly wish the law was respected as it should)
Three years in prison for abortion
- The child cannot be punished for the criminal acts of its parents. Surely the rapist have to be punished, but not the child by a death penalty. Because abortion is death - Krzysztof Kasprzak from the foundation argued in an interview in "Wyborcza" back in May. That's when the organisation managed to collect the required 100 thousands of signatures. It makes that Sejm have to debate about the project.
Following the amendment "the one, with the consent of the woman, who did the abortion could be punished to imprisonment up to three years."
The project:
- expunged points about "access to information and prenatal tests"
- made a stipulation that teaching about sexual life "must respect parent's moral standards"
- changed the title of the statement from "about family planning, protection of human fetus and cases of allowance of abortion" to "about protection of human life and health from conception".
What about the constitutional right for health and privacy?
Over 40 Polish non-governmental organisations and over 80 from abroad appeal for the rejection of the statement in letters sent to all deputies. Among them there are: Amnesty International, fundacja
Feminoteka, Grupa Edukatorów Seksualnych "Ponton" (eng. Group of Sexual Educatiors "Ponton"), Instytut Spraw
Publicznych (eng. Institute of Public Cases), stowarzyszenie Kongres Kobiet (eng. Women Congress), Trans-Fuzja. Under the appeal signed also professor Monika Płatek and professor Wiktor Osiatyński.
- If the statement would be accepted, a woman would fear even to go to a doctor. How could she be sure that he will be protecting her life? It is a statement which protects the embryo, fetus, in which the woman's health does not count. And not every woman wants to be a saint hero. What about the constitutional right for health or privacy? This statement is a manifestation of the absolute atrocity against woman - says Krystyna Kacpura, a director of Federacja na rzecz Kobiet i Planowania Rodziny (eng. Federation for Woman and Family Planning), the organisation which started the appeal.
- We appeal to rationality of deputies. After all, the current extremely restrictive statement is sometimes difficult to enforce.
Women are human beings, not incubators
The signers of the letter points that "the effect of the restricted law will not eliminate abortion but push it into a 'deep underground'". Even now 50 thousands of woman all over the world die every year due to abortions carried out in danger conditions.
"If the proposed amendment was accepted, even Polish society would have to pay a high price for the hipocrisy of so-called 'pro-lifes' whom, in the name of 'saving children', wants to sentence pregnant women to death and do not see them as people but only a living incubators who are forced to give births no matter of the most tragic circumstances" - we read in the letter.
Organisations point out that the right to decide would be taken away from the woman "even in such a drastic case as certainty that fetus would not survive till the end of the pregnancy". The statement of legislative comitee that the amendment will 'make community relations more human', in case that the victim of rape or incest would be forced to keep the pregnancy and give birth, should be concidered as preposterous - say organisations.
Organisations point out that the right to decide would be taken away from the woman "even in such a drastic case as certainty that fetus would not survive till the end of the pregnancy". The statement of legislative comitee that the amendment will 'make community relations more human', in case that the victim of rape or incest would be forced to keep the pregnancy and give birth, should be concidered as preposterous - say organisations.
Abortion for the beginning and closing of the term of office
