LifeSiteNews.com report today on a new Pro-life initiative to be debated in Poland's parliament this week seeking a total ban on all abortion. The initiative was apparently kept under wraps to protect it from foreign anti-life media until everything was ready link to article
This should also be seen both in the context of the Polish pro-life rally which took place on 29 May and in the context of Decisions of the European Court of Human Rights.
Thousands of Poles took part on May 29th in the 6th March in Defense of Life and Family in Warsaw.
It is estimated that nearly 20,000 people walked through the streets of Warsaw, carrying banners and posters reading ‘Stop Abortion’, and ‘Grant Every Child a Right to Life’, etc. The marchers represented all ages – from grandparents to babies – and delegations from the U.S., Brazil, France, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Lithuania and Estonia joined with their Polish counterparts and friends in solidarity to proclaim the inherent right to life of the unborn child from the moment of conception, and the importance of the family. Tradition, Family and Property report that on the occasion of the march ‘Dozens of priests and nuns stood out among the multitude. Several congressmen and leading personalities in Polish politics also attended.‘This year’s march followed the success of a flash petition which gathered more than 500,000 signatures in only weeks asking for a complete ban on abortion in Poland. It was delivered to the Legislative Assembly in April. “Today our nation is facing many difficult, social, economic and political problems,” the appeal to the congressmen reads. “However, the basic problem lies in the moral order”.
According to the LifeSite report the final number of signatures presented to the Assembly topped 600,000
The Polish initiative must also be viewed in the context of two adverse judgements by the European Court of the ECtHR which sought to use Poland's existing laws to to expand abortion access in Poland through legislation, Tysiac v. Poland and more recently, RR v. Poland. The
Tysiac case was in fact the pivotal case in that the court improperly expanded private life in Article. 8 to include health and autonomy.
This new Polish initiative should be a lesson to Ireland in how to deal with adverse ECtHR judgements such as the recent A,B and C case
