A grassroots initiative has been launched in Poland in an attempt to ban abortion without exceptions.
Christian Today reports that the catalyst for the initiative was the
horror of a botched abortion in which the 24-week-old child, diagnosed
with Down Syndrome, was left unattended to die.
"The scream of this child was so traumatic for the personnel that they
declared that they will never forget it," Polish reporter Anna Wiejak
told the news outlet Church Militant.
Currently, abortion is legal in Poland only in instances of rape, if
the life of the mother is in danger, or if the baby has been diagnosed
with a handicap or abnormality up to 25 weeks gestation.
The initiative to ban abortion entirely is being spearheaded by a group
called Fundacja Pro (Pro Foundation) which is seeking to collect
100,000 signatures so that the ban will be considered by Poland’s
legislature.
“The proposed draft ensures that all children, before and after birth,
have equal rights and protection of life and health," stated the legal
group Ordo Iuris.
"It removes the three existing circumstances under which an abortion is
currently permitted. The initiative requires the state to support
families raising handicapped children or children conceived in
circumstances related to the commission of an offence,” the group
further outlines.
Poland’s population is predominately Catholic and the country officially became a Christian nation in A.D. 966.
Catholic leaders who support the abortion ban say that the anniversary
of this Christian conversion would be a fitting time to enact it.
"In this jubilee year of Poland's baptism, we urge all people of
goodwill, believers and nonbelievers, to take action to ensure full
legal protection of unborn lives," said a statement from the Polish
bishops' conference.
Some of the country’s influential women leaders, however, although
acknowledging the tragedy of abortion, are more hesitant to enact a
total ban.
"Every abortion is a tragedy, but we should not aggravate women's
tragedy by forcing them to give birth to children of rape or forcing
them to risk their own life or health or that of their child," they
wrote in an open letter.
Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydlo has said that the statement from the
women "has clearly pointed us in the right direction ... Each of us
must now decide according to conscience. But it will certainly be bad if
such a sensitive, important issue becomes the object of a political
struggle."
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