In Poland, the Tusk government’s pro-abortion drift wants to legalize abortion on demand.
To satisfy his more ideological electorate, Tusk wants to liberalise abortion in Poland. Not having a majority in parliament to change the current abortion law, the government has issued guidelines for the health service, according to which abortion can be carried out for reasons of the woman’s health at any time during pregnancy: a certificate issued by a psychiatrist certifying a risk to the mental health of the pregnant woman is sufficient. In practice, this would mean legalising abortion on demand.
In October 2020, the Polish Constitutional Court, in a landmark ruling, established that voluntary termination of pregnancy due to severe fetal malformations violates the Constitution. According to the judges, the rule allowing abortion on eugenic grounds was contrary to three articles of the Basic Law: on the protection of human life (Art. 38), on respect and protection of human dignity (Art. 30) and on discrimination (Art. 32): there can be no protection of human dignity without protection of life. Previously, abortion of unborn children with malformations was provided for by a 1993 law that allowed abortion even in cases of rape and danger to the mother’s life.
The restoration of the “right” to abortion became one of the flagships of the then opposition led by Donald Tusk. Tusk sparked street demonstrations by feminists and pro-abortion supporters. In July 2023, a few months before the elections, taking advantage of a simple drama of a Polish woman who had an abortion by taking abortion pills, he announced the organization of a march he called “The March of a Million Hearts”. Tusk wanted to mobilize his most ideological electorate, first of all feminists and left-wing circles who had always been against the law protecting life in force at that time in Poland.
Despite winning the October 2023 election (with 35.38% of the vote), the conservative PiS party failed to form a new government and continue to govern. Donald Tusk did so by forming a “pro-European” government, made up of three coalitions of 14 parties, including ex-communist, feminist and green forces that were staunchly pro-abortion. But without a majority in the Sejm (the lower house of the Polish Parliament) to change the current abortion law, the government is trying to force doctors and hospitals to kill unborn children using extra-legal methods. Health Minister Izabela Leszczyna has issued guidelines for the health service according to which, in order to perform an abortion for health reasons, a certificate issued by a specialist doctor confirming the existence of a risk to the woman’s health is sufficient. woman at any time during pregnancy, even in the ninth month. A gynaecologist will not be able to challenge this certificate, seek the opinion of another doctor or call for a consultation. In announcing the guidelines, the Minister of Health openly admitted that his aim was to ensure that a certificate from a psychiatrist stating a risk to mental health would be sufficient to perform an abortion. Obviously, “risk to mental health” is very difficult to assess and this leaves much room for abuse. In addition, some psychiatrists are known to be pro-abortion, regarding every unwanted pregnancy as a burden on the psyche and abortion as a help to the woman. These psychiatrists will be ready to issue the appropriate certificate in virtually any situation. Forcing gynaecologists to perform abortions on the basis of a single certificate issued by another specialist, with no possibility of challenging it, would in practice mean legalising abortion on demand. The system would be similar to that in force in England and Wales, where more than 200,000 children die every year, most of them from a risk to the mental health of women.
The health service guidelines are not only immoral, but above all illegal. However, the current government does not care and tries to force health workers to obey by threatening doctors and hospitals with prosecution, punishment and fines. Doctors have no right to refuse an abortion, and those who refuse risk legal consequences, very high fines or simply termination of the contract with the National Health Fund. In this way, the fundamental right to conscientious objection is denied.
Jacek Kotula, one of the Polish pro-life activists, criticises the ideological drift of the current left-dominated government as “a total denial of humanity”. “Instead of treating people and saving their lives, the left has led to a situation where hospitals and doctors are punished simply for refusing to kill a child. Instead of being guided by ethics, conscience and morality, the left wants to make us a society that accepts evil or even desires it.”
The famous gynecologist-obstetrician Prof. Bogdan Chazan is very concerned about the situation. “It turns out,” says the professor, “that today the National Health Fund is not interested in whether the medical care in the hospital is of a good standard, whether there are ventilators for newborns, or whether women giving birth receive proper monitoring. The National Health Fund, like the Ministry of Health, is strangely focused on finding cases of failed abortions and punishing the “guilty”. It is frightening.”
Unfortunately, more and more doctors and hospitals are being hit with sanctions and fines for refusing to perform abortions. The first facility to be punished was the Pabianice Medical Centre, and recently the Lubartów Hospital and the Wrocław University Hospital were fined around 70 thousand euros.
In addition, pro-abortion organisations are becoming active in Poland. For example, Aborcyjny Dream Team, an organisation convicted of complicity in abortion, wants to open a clinic where abortion is possible on request. They also want to do this in collaboration with the city of Warsaw, with taxpayers’ money. On the organisation’s website we read: “We are part of the largest network of pro-abortion organisations in Europe and more than 40,000 people turn to us for help every year. We support them in abortions in Poland and in trips to foreign clinics. We believe that the best way to fight for abortion is to perform it.” ADT boasts that it helps 94 people every day to “terminate their pregnancies” (almost 4 abortions per hour). Now the Tusk government, with the guidelines, has given a sense of impunity to all those who perform abortions.
Although the guidelines of the Ministry of Health are not formal regulatory acts, they largely affect the sphere of rights and freedoms. They may therefore be subject to assessment of compliance with the Constitution and laws by the Constitutional Court. For this reason, many pro-life circles in Poland are mobilising to invite parliamentarians and the president himself to appeal the guidelines on abortion to the Constitutional Court.
