Polish parliament votes to advance bill that decriminalizes abortion

(Ordo Iuris) —  On November 8, the Polish Sejm (parliament) voted on a bill decriminalizing both the performance and the aiding and abetting of illegal abortions. The Left (Lewica) party’s radically pro-abortion bill was thus sent for further parliamentary work.

Thanks to the efforts of the great coalition of pro-life advocates, 11 Members of Parliament (MPs) of the government coalition voted against it. However, supporters of a debate on the legalization of killing won the vote this time. We are facing the most difficult time in years for the defense of life. This bill must not become law. Resisting it is the task of every decent person who holds dear such values as human dignity, human rights, children’s rights, and good health care, and who does not have hands and consciences stained with the blood of the innocent.

The Left party has authored this bill, which is supported by the left-liberal coalition of PM Donald Tusk.

The Left’s bill puts women at risk

Even before the vote, an analysis of the abortion bill, prepared by Ordo Iuris experts, was delivered to MPs. In it, we explained in detail that – contrary to what The Left says – the bill has nothing to do with protecting women.

First, the main victims of abortion are unborn girls, who are killed most often.

Second, although abortionists regularly say that their goal is “safe abortions,” the proposed bill provides for the opposite. For example, the bill abolishes criminal liability for an abortion performed by a person without medical training or under conditions that violate certain sanitary requirements.

What’s more, the bill eases penalties for abortion performers who cause the death of the mother.

The bill is simply tailored for the abortion lobby and its industry worth billions. This manifests itself not only by allowing anyone to perform abortions but also by protecting butchers who kill children and women. Finally, the growth of the abortion business is served by abolishing liability for aiding and abetting abortion. Everyone will lose, except for the organizations that, in full contempt of Polish law, trade in illegal abortion pills and anticipate the opening of an abortion clinic in Warsaw.

The proposed legislation will therefore lead to a drastic reduction in the standard of care for women and create a serious threat to the lives of pregnant women. This, by the way, is not our concern alone. Even Civic Coalition MP Roman Giertych wrote on social media that The Left’s project is “sloppy, unreasonable, and even dangerous for women in some points,” and Polish People’s Party (PSL) MP Marek Sawicki said that after the possible implementation of The Left’s proposed legislation, even a person not licensed to practice conventional medicine will be able to perform an abortion; and if such persons kill the mother and child, they will not bear any responsibility.

The Civic Coalition is a political alliance led by PM Donald Tusk’s liberal party, and the PSL is an agrarian party. The latter is said to be the most conservative member of Poland’s ruling left-liberal coalition.

During the parliamentary debate, the words of MP Karina Bosak from the right-wing Confederation (Konfederacja) an alliance of Christian nationalists and libertarians, rang out movingly. Denouncing the lack of respect for human rights and human dignity, she several times drew attention to the basic moral assessment of The Left’s [bill], saying that “this project is bad.”

Many Confederation, Law and Justice (Prawo i Sprawiedliwość), the conservative party which governed Poland in 2015–2023, and PSL deputies stood on the side of good. May they persevere and bear witness to their fidelity to life when the most important votes come.

But if this or another bill on the killing of innocent children were to be passed by the Sejm and the Senate, we would be fully prepared for a huge mass action to appeal to President Andrzej Duda to veto immediately this barbaric and unconstitutional legislation.

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Tusk’s government wants to bring abortion on demand to Poland by any means

The fight for the lives of unborn children is also being waged on many other fronts. In addition to attempting repeatedly to pass pro-abortion laws in parliament, the Polish government is trying to restrict the right to life of unborn children with extra-legal measures.

At the end of August, Donald Tusk, Adam Bodnar and Izabela Leszczyna promulgated guidelines for doctors, stating that they should broadly interpret the statutory concept of danger to women’s health and kill unborn children whenever a mother brings a certificate from any doctor that the pregnancy threatens her health, including mental health.

If doctors begin to follow the government’s recommendations en masse, Poland will become a country with the most barbaric and inhumane abortion laws in Europe – an unborn child could be killed, de facto on demand, even a day before birth!

We know that it is under the excuse of “mental health risks” that as many as 98% of the 200,000+ unborn children aborted each year are killed in the UK. The content of the government guidelines – although devoid of legal force – clearly gives the green light to such inhumane treatment of unborn children in Poland.

Thus, the lives of hundreds of thousands of Polish children today lie in the hands of doctors, who are in a very difficult situation because the government has created unprecedented legal chaos.

That is why our analysis has been sent to all hospitals. In it, we explain to doctors, hospital directors, and prescribers that the government’s guidelines contradict the constitutional and statutory provisions that apply to doctors and simply must not be applied. Acting on the basis of unlawful guidelines is a violation of the law, for which doctors, not members of the government, will be held responsible. At the same time, we, at the Ordo Iuris Institute, offer training and free legal assistance to all doctors, because both the Polish Constitution and Poland’s binding international law unequivocally affirm that no one has the right to force a doctor or hospital to kill unborn children.

Our experts are already well advanced in developing a comprehensive legal guide for doctors, in which we will explain to blackmailed healthcare workers how they can save themselves from attempts to force them to kill unborn children.

Our work with the medical community is already bearing fruit. The November issue of the District Medical Chamber’s monthly magazine PULS featured an interview with the vice president of the District Medical Chamber in Warsaw, who said that doctors expected “a law or at least a regulation. Meanwhile, we have a document of unclear status – guidelines, published in PDF form on the Ministry’s website, without any signature. This is cause for concern because someday this document could be used in court and be challenged as having no legal standing.”

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Polish doctors intimidated, fined, fired for refusing to abort 

Donald Tusk’s government is fully aware of the illegality of its actions. Therefore, unprecedented blackmail and intimidation of doctors has begun in parallel. The Pabianice Medical Center was fined 250 thousand zlotys (approximately $61,068 US) by the National Health Service (NFZ) because doctors refused to kill the child of a woman who, without presenting the required documents, claimed that her pregnancy threatened her mental well-being. The hospital was originally fined 550 thousand zlotys ($134,324 US) but on appeal, the fine was reduced by just over half.

A similar penalty was imposed on the University Clinical Hospital in Wrocław (300 thousand zl./$73,261 US) and the hospital in Lubartów (100 thousand zl./$24,421 US). The latter two facilities are currently considering appeals against the NFZ decision, while the case of the Pabianice hospital will be heard again in court.

In Wrocław, Agnieszka Chrobak, director of the A. Falkiewicz Hospital, was also dismissed from her post, having earlier fallen victim to a left-wing media campaign for refusing to agree to the killing of a child on the basis of a certificate from a psychiatrist, and for bringing relics of the Blessed Ulma family to the hospital.

Our lawyers are ready to provide free legal assistance to all doctors and hospital directors persecuted by the government and the NFZ. The Polish Constitution, Polish laws, and international law binding on Poland stand unequivocally on the side of the freedom of conscience of health care workers.

To ensure that politicians do not get away with violating the Constitution and promoting the killing of children, Ordo Iuris lawyers will prepare a motion to bring before the State Tribunal Donald Tusk, Adam Bodnar, and Izabela Leszczyna, who have committed blatant violations of the Polish Constitution and the foundations of the entire Polish legal system.

In order to cut decisively through the Polish government’s unconstitutional actions, we are finalizing with a team of external experts the editing of a complex petition to the Constitutional Court, which may rule that the government’s guidelines are incompatible with the Polish Constitution. Earlier we launched a petition to President Andrzej Duda, in which we called on the head of state to refer the case to the Constitutional Court.

An abortion clinic in Warsaw?

Unlawful government actions embolden abortionists to break the law even more audaciously. Abortionists from the Abortion Dream Team, who for several years have been ostentatiously peddling illegal abortion pills and boasting about aiding abortions criminalized in the Criminal Code, now want to go a step further and announce the opening of a stationary abortion clinic in Warsaw. At the same time, they want all Varsovians to contribute to their illegal activities by financing the city premises donated for this purpose.

On October 7, our lawyers filed a request for access to public information with the Warsaw City Hall, in which we asked whether the abortionists have actually applied for city premises to be made available to them, and if so, whether the capital authorities have agreed to this. Although it is an easy matter to ascertain the facts and answer our question, the City Hall is still delaying an answer, stipulating that it may not even provide one until December 6!

At the same time, we also launched an online petition, in which we remind the Mayor of Warsaw that we are talking about blatantly illegal activity. Article 152 of the Criminal Code unequivocally stipulates that the penalty for performing an illegal abortion and for assisting in one is up to three years’ imprisonment. The unlawfulness of the activities carried out by the Abortion Dream Team has already been confirmed by the Warsaw-Praga District Court, which last year convicted one of the ADT leaders of aiding and abetting abortion in a trial in which Ordo Iuris lawyers participated.

The fate of unborn children is in our hands

We are at a moment of great trial: one in which the fate of thousands of Polish children each year is at stake.

We still have a huge amount of work ahead of us in defense of life. The attack of the civilization of death on Poland today is unprecedented. The scale of mobilization of the entire Polish pro-life movement must also be unprecedented.

If we do not act forcefully now, the legal promotion of the civilization of death could mean the death of millions of Poles murdered in abortion procedures.

We cannot allow Poland to become a country that murders its own children en masse.

In a homily delivered at the Shrine of St. Joseph in Kalisz in 1997, St. John Paul II said that “the measure of a civilization – a universal, timeless measure that includes all cultures – is its attitude to life. A civilization that rejects the defenseless deserves to be called barbaric, even if it had great economic, technical, artistic and scientific achievements.” The Polish Pope stated firmly and unequivocally that “a nation that kills its own children is a nation without a future.”

I have no doubt that defending the right to life of the weakest and most innocent is the duty of each of us. Today we must jointly resist the civilization of death.

Jerzy Kwaśniewski, Esq. – President of Ordo Iuris

This article first appeared on the English-language page of the Polish Ordo Iuris website. Edited and republished with permission.