Abortion debate rages in Poland

POLAND: Pro- and anti-abortion groups demonstrated in Warsaw yesterday as politicians debated a proposal that could tighten …

POLAND:Pro- and anti-abortion groups demonstrated in Warsaw yesterday as politicians debated a proposal that could tighten Poland's already restrictive abortion laws.

The proposed constitutional amendment would protect life from the moment of conception and prevent the integration into Polish law of any international agreements that provide a lesser protection of life.

If backed by two thirds of the Polish parliament, the Sejm, the new constitutional provision could force the constitutional court to strike down existing laws permitting abortions in cases of rape, foetus deformities or where the life or health of the woman is at risk.

At an open-air Mass in Warsaw, organised by the fundamentalist station Radio Maryja, a priest asked God to help politicians "avoid satanic arguments and the spirit of darkness".

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Afterwards about 5,000 anti-abortion demonstrators, many Radio Maryja listeners, marched to the Sejm waving Polish flags and banners with the slogan "yes to life".

"We came here to defend life, to follow Jesus. Because Jesus said: 'Thou shalt not kill'," said one marcher, Marianna Grabska. Asked if an abortion is justified if a woman's life is in danger, she replied: "God gives life, God takes it away."

Across town, about 1,000 people gathered for a smaller pro-choice rally under the banner "for the protection of women and the constitution".

"Women are treated by the Catholic right-wing like incubators," said Joanna Seneszyn, vice-president of the post-communist Democratic Left. "They are supposed to carry a baby to full term no matter what and then they can give it away."

Poland's emotional abortion debate, with overtones of Ireland in 1983, poses a threat to Poland's fractious three-way coalition. The extreme-right League of Polish Families (LPR), a junior coalition party, believes the amendment does not go far enough and is calling for an anti-euthanasia provision, "protecting life to the moment of natural death".

The abortion issue has also divided the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party of the Kaczynski brothers.

Pro-life PiS MP Marian Pilka greeted marchers outside the Sejm yesterday, shouting: "Radio Maryja families are true defenders of women: they protect them from themselves."

Others in the party see the abortion campaign as an attempt by LPR to win back the favour of the influential Radio Maryja and its listeners, traditional LPR voters, who have drifted over to the Kaczynskis since they took office.

When the twins failed to back the campaign for a complete abortion ban, Radio Maryja's outspoken director Fr Rydzyk turned on them, calling the presidential palace a "cesspit".

Now the twins have begun to fight back against its junior coalition partner and the firebrand priest.

"LPR wants to gain support of the most traditional Catholic environments," said the prime minister, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, yesterday. "It is so obvious, so clear, so lacking in subtly, it makes me feel sorry." Things have been complicated by last week's European court judgment in Strasbourg awarding damages to a Polish woman left almost blind after being refused an abortion.

Many Polish politicians have rejected the verdict of the European Court of Human Rights that the woman's human rights were violated.

Sejm MPs will vote on the proposed constitutional change after Easter in a free ballot, making the outcome unclear.