Secretary General of the Council of Europe Thornbjorn Jagland smiles prior to talks with Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydlo in Warsaw, Poland, Monday, April 4, 2016.
Advertisement
Currently, abortion is not legal in Poland except under three circumstances: that the mother’s life or health is in danger; that the pregnancy was due to a criminal act like rape or incest; and when medical experts deem that the unborn child has an incurable disease or a severe, irreversible handicap.
The letter reads in part: “When it comes to the life of the unborn, we can’t remain at the current compromise set out in the law”, which was adopted in 1993.
Polish citizens protested on Sunday a possible total abortion ban following the suggestion of the ruling legislative party’s president. Bishops cited the sixth of the Ten Commandments, which states: ‘Thou shalt not kill’. “Therefore the position of Catholics in this regard is clear and unchanging”, Poland’s Bishop said in a letter on the subject released last week. “We ask the lawmakers and the government to initiate the legislation”.
Speaking at a March 30 Sejm pro-life conference, Archbishop Henryk Hoser of Warsaw, who heads the Polish Church’s bioethics commission, said “every human life, regardless of usefulness and serviceability” should be legally protected, adding that a growing disregard for life had “degraded medicine and social life”.
The PiS plans to stop state funding of in-vitro fertilization (IVF) and reinstate the prescription requirements for the “morning after” contraceptive pill, the Guardian reported.
Advertisement
Amendments to the constitution by PiS have crippled the country’s top court, the panel found. The changes to the law, which were approved by the country’s parliament in December, impacted the order in which court cases were heard and also required a two-thirds majority for a ruling to be considered valid. They claimed the measure would lead to more illegal, back-alley abortions and would force more women to travel to other countries for abortions.
