11/11/2024 Position of the Catholic Medical Associations on attempts to implement systemic sexual depravation of children.

The Catholic Medical Associations have submitted to the Minister of Education, as part of public consultations, a developed position negatively assessing the core curriculum of the compulsory subject proposed by the Ministry of National Education on October 31, 2024: health education, demonstrating the harmfulness of permissive sexual education for the education, upbringing and development of children and youth, which was to be introduced in Polish schools as planned from September 1, 2025 and contains elements of systemic sexual depravation of children and youth. We do not agree to the implementation of such a program.

THE POSITION OF CATHOLIC MEDICAL ASSOCIATIONS  TOWARDS ATTEMPTS TO IMPLEMENT SYSTEMIC SEXUAL DEPRAVATION OF CHILDREN  IN POLISH SCHOOLS

  • Catholic Association of Polish Doctors
  • Catholic Association of Polish Nurses and Midwives
  • Association of Catholic Pharmacists of Poland
  • Catholic Association of Laboratory Diagnosticians

Honourable Mrs. Barbara Nowacka, Minister of Education Warsaw, 11 November 2024

Dear Madam Minister,

We strongly disagree with the introduction of the core curriculum for a new compulsory subject: health education, proposed by the Ministry of National Education on 31 October 2024, into Polish schools from 1 September 2025. [1]  The draft Regulation of the Minister of Education published on the website of the Government Legislation Centre contains principles of permissive sexual education that are very harmful to the education, upbringing and development of children and youth, constituting a systemic depravation of children and youth in Polish schools. We protest against attempts to replace non-compulsory family life education lessons with compulsory health education lessons conducted in accordance with the proposed core curriculum, along with plans to continue such changed education in the following years. 

  1. The Constitution of the Republic of Poland in Art. 48 guarantees that:  “parents have the right to raise their children in accordance with their own beliefs”.  The regulation of the Minister of Education on such an important change to the core curriculum cannot deprive parents of constitutional guarantees and forcefully introduce a mandatory system of permissive sexual education. We perceive the extremely short, mere three-week period for social consultations on fundamental changes to children’s education as an unwillingness to hear the voice of society on this important matter.
  2. In Poland, as part of the subject “education for family life”, a good type A sexual education program is implemented, which assumes the education of children and young people in the spirit of responsibility, respect and respect for human dignity. The proposed model of type C sexual education (the so-called comprehensive model) assumes that non-governmental organizations and external sex educators are to participate in its implementation. It has been proven that this method of education, which presents students only with biological aspects of sexuality, praises the concentration on satisfying drives and ignores responsibility for oneself and the other person, including the emotional and parental aspect of relationships, teaches children and young people to treat people as objects.
  3. There is no logical basis for changing a good sex education program implemented in Polish schools for many years as a model of sex education type A to harmful type C. Lawyers from the Ordo Iuris Institute have shown through  the “Analysis of the effectiveness of sex education in Western Europe and Scandinavian countries” [2] that in countries such as Sweden, Germany and Denmark, where a permissive model of sex education type C was introduced, the number of abortions and pregnancies among teenagers, sexually transmitted diseases and sexual crimes increased. The frequency of sexual crimes, including rapes; per 100 thousand inhabitants in 2017 amounted to approximately 8 in Poland, 42 in Germany, 83 in Denmark and as much as 189 in Sweden. The change of education from type A to type C, currently proposed by the Ministry of Education, will lead to the increase of these phenomena in Poland. [3]
  4. The proposed core curriculum is completely inappropriate for age. Young children aged 10-12 (grades 4-6 of primary school) are forced to be educated about sexual relationships in partnerships, the possibility of experiencing pleasant and safe sexual experiences, and are informed that autosexual behavior is a medical norm. This is systemic eroticization and depravation of children and young people under the guise of caring for their health.
  5. It is harmful to maturing into adulthood to separate knowledge about a teenager’s sexuality from the social context, references to marriage, family, love and responsibility in the sphere of interpersonal relationships. The core curriculum does not include the concept of “marriage”, there is no talk of fidelity and durability of relationships. Children do not need training on “what affects libido” or knowledge of various “forms of sexual activity”, they need information about the physiological differences in development between boys and girls and teaching them how to build friendly relationships.
  6. What is very harmful in the proposed education is the lack of presenting children with a model of faithful marriage and a happy family for life, which would arouse a healthy desire for family life. Instead, they will be taught about unstable, informal relationships and also informed about the rights of the child and the duties of parents towards the child, but not about their parental rights, which can create demanding attitudes, especially in the absence of systematic teaching about one’s own duties towards other family members.
  7. We do not agree to present children with “different family models” and the pathologies that occur in them, such as separation, divorce, parents entering into new relationships. These are harmful, anxiety-provoking activities.
  8. The proposal to provide information about sexual drive without indicating the need to learn to control it as part of growing up is completely anti-educational. The program promotes premature sexual initiation, with 13-14 year olds (grades VII-VIII of primary school) being asked about the criteria of “conscious consent” and “mature” and conscious preparation for sexual initiation. As part of such education, young people are allowed to have premature sexual initiation provided that they engage in sexual intercourse fully consciously and voluntarily. We will not find a single word in the Regulation about the connection between early sexual initiation and breast cancer and infertility in the future.
  9. We believe that it is not appropriate to teach children about various so-called “psychosexual orientations” (heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, asexual) and concepts of gender identity (cisgender ,  transgender) without defining these phenomena as disorders. According to the core curriculum, 13-14 year olds are to be subjected to indoctrination in accordance with the postulates of the LGBT movements.
  10. It is a mistake to provide knowledge about contraceptive methods to a 13-14-year-old child without simultaneously informing them about their harmfulness and teaching them about family planning methods based on observing fertility symptoms during the menstrual cycle.

We consider the school education program proposed by the Minister of Education to be highly harmful socially and individually, the core curriculum of the subject “health education”, in which sexuality is to be discussed in isolation from relationships, love, responsibility, building a family, and children’s attention is to be focused on their own pleasure.

We request the complete rejection of the core curriculum, which exposes children’s development and health to complications and will make it difficult to create happy families and faithful marriages in the future.

On behalf of the Catholic Medical Associations:

  • Dr. n. med. Elżbieta Kortyczko,  specialist in neonatology and pediatrics,  President of the Catholic Association of Polish Physicians (KSLP) 
  • Prof. Bogdan Chazan , specialist in gynecology and obstetrics, Vice-President of the Polish Society of Physicians and Dentists
  • Dr. Grażyna Rybak , pediatric specialist,  President of the Masovian Branch of the KSLP (OM KSLP) 
  • Dr. Andrzej Niemirski , specialist in internal medicine, specialist in family medicine,  President of the Radom Region Branch of the KSLP (OR KSLP)
  • Dr. Małgorzata Prusak, Ph.D. , Pharmacy Specialist, Master of Theology,  President of the Association of Catholic Pharmacists in Poland,
  • Dr. n. med. Elżbieta Puacz , microbiology specialist, public health specialist,  President of the Catholic Association of Laboratory Diagnosticians, 
  • Dr. Tadeusz Wadas,  Master of Science in Nursing, Ph.D. in Health, Specialist in Anesthesia and Intensive Care Nursing,  President of the Catholic Association of Polish Nurses and Midwives 
  • Prof. Jerzy Jurkiewicz , neurosurgery specialist, Chairman of the Peer Court of the KSLP
  • Dr. Marzenna Koszańska,  pediatric specialist, Vice President of OM KSLP
  • Dr. Małgorzata Kępińska , specialist in neonatology and pediatrics, Delegate of the OM KSLP
  • Dr. Marzena Grzybowska , neurology specialist, Secretary of the OM KSLP
  • Dr. Barbara Antoniak , gynecologist, Gynecology and Obstetrics Section of the Polish Society of Physicians and Dentists
  • Dr Izabela Pakulska , internal medicine specialist, member of the Polish Society of Physicians and Surgeons (KSLP)
  • Dr. Anna Szopa-Tyszecka , pulmonologist, Holy Family Medical Community

[1]  https://legislatka.rcl.gov.pl/projekt/12391102

[2]  https://ordoiuris.pl/raporty/konse-edukacji-seksulnej-alizacja-skutecznosci-edukacji-seksulnej-w-europie

[3]  Type A, B and C sex education was introduced by the American Academy of Pediatrics. Type A is education for sexual abstinence of teenagers, premarital chastity and marital fidelity. Type B is biological sex education, devoid of ethical values, Type C includes both of the above types of education. The results of recent studies show that abstinent sex education of Type A brings the most positive effects. In the USA, for many years, sex education of types B and C was implemented, which led to an increase in the incidence of venereal diseases (syphilis, syphilis, gonorrhea, chlamydia) among teenagers, HIV infections and viral hepatitis, as well as a large number of unwanted, extramarital pregnancies, which unfortunately often end in abortion.