Legislators To Ban Abortion In Poland

The Polish Parliament is scheduled to consider a new bill this week that would provide more protections for unborn babies by banning all abortions and make getting or performing an abortion a punishable offense.

 Currently, abortion is illegal in the predominantly Catholic country except in cases of rape, incest, if the life of the mother is in danger, or in cases of severe fetal deformities. The new bill, if signed into law, would make abortion illegal in all cases except when the life of the mother is endangered.The bill would criminalize abortion for causing the “death of a conceived child.” Doctors who do abortions and women who have them could face jail time of up to five years.

LifeNews.com reports that the pro-life bill was first introduced this spring, is citizen-led, and has collected about 450,000 signatures of support.

Pro-abortion groups, however, protested the new bill and raised support for a bill of their own which would legalize abortion on demand up to 12 weeks gestation. They claimed that restricting abortion and punishing doctors who perform abortions and women who get abortions would actually force women to choose between giving birth to an unwanted baby or going to jail.

The pro-abortion bill has gained about 215,000 signatures.

Catholic Church leaders in Poland are in support of the abortion ban. Polish priests recently read a statement in support of the new bill:

“Catholics’ position on this is clear, and unchangeable. One needs to protect every person’s life from conception to natural death,” the statement said. “We ask the lawmakers and the government to initiate the legislation.”