Letter from KSM to Parliamentarians regarding the decision to continue the bill on the decriminalization of abortion

Catholic Medical Associations: the Catholic Association of Polish Doctors, the Catholic Association of Polish Nurses and Midwives, the Association of Polish Catholic Pharmacists, and the Catholic Association of Laboratory Diagnosticians, once again appeal to the Parliamentarians in connection with the decision to continue the proceeding in the Sejm of the Act on the decriminalization of intrauterine murder of children.
Warsaw, Katowice, Radom, Gdańsk, Kraków, Lublin, Częstochowa 13.XI.2024

Dear Parliamentarians.

Each of you has been chosen to make wise and honest decisions in the affairs of our Nation. We are addressing you once again, because the pro-abortion project of the Left Party, by a majority of several votes, was referred to the Sejm committee for further work, after the vote on 8 November 2024 on the bill decriminalizing abortion[1]

The bill clearly violates the provisions of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland (Article 38), which protects every human life from conception. We appeal to your conscience and patriotic care for the health and life of Polish children, women and families. This deadly project does not serve women – mothers or their unborn children in any way. Instead, it aims to protect abortion activists and the income of companies that produce and distribute, so far illegally, harmful abortion pills, at the expense of children’s lives and the physical and mental health of their mothers. An analysis by Ordo Iuris lawyers proved that the law does not protect women from the actions of people who are not medically educated. However, it exempts from liability people who help in abortion who, by their actions, lead to the death of a woman as a result of abortion. [2]

We hope that each of you is dear to the values common to all of us, that is, the dignity of a woman and the honesty of a doctor, the right of a child to life and care for good health care, so that when treating and saving lives, doctors and midwives do not have broken consciences and hands stained with the blood of innocents.

The number of intrauterine murders of children in our country (according to organizations dealing with illegal assistance in the so-called abortion) has been estimated at 80-200 thousand per year, which compared to the number of births in 2023 in Poland; 272 thousand children (according to the Central Statistical Office) is an alarming statistic. In 2023, 44.7 million children were killed in the world as a result of the abortion procedure, which means the destruction of the population of a country larger than Poland in a year.

The proposed change in the law is an open attack on the Code of Medical Ethics (KEL), Article 2 of which excludes a doctor from participating in assisting in abortion because:

  1. The vocation of a doctor is to protect human life and health, prevent diseases, treat the sick and relieve suffering; A doctor may not use medical knowledge and skills in activities contrary to this vocation.
  2. The highest ethical imperative of a doctor is the good of the patient – salus aegroti suprema lex esto. Market mechanisms, social pressures and administrative requirements do not exempt the doctor from complying with this principle.

The adoption of the pro-abortion bill gives permission, contrary to the Polish Criminal Code, so that a doctor could kill healthy children up to the 12th week of pregnancy with impunity, and children with developmental defects without limiting the time of pregnancy, even until the day of delivery. Article 39 of the Code of Criminal Procedure obliges a doctor to take care of every conceived patient in the prenatal phase: “Taking medical action in a pregnant woman, the doctor is also responsible for the health and life of her child. Therefore, it is the doctor’s duty to try to preserve the health and life of the child also before its birth.”

Exemption from criminal liability destroys the ethos and mission of the doctor, allows for the violation of the KEL and demoralizes the medical community in the long term, which has a negative impact on the upbringing of young doctors, nurses, midwives, and their determination to save patients’ lives. The law shapes the awareness of good and evil. The vocation of a doctor is to save human health and life, not to kill people.

The abolition of penalties for aiding and abetting abortions ennobles abortion organizations and gives them the freedom to mediate, sell and distribute abortion pills in order to openly facilitate abortions at home, which are dangerous to women’s lives, performed by mothers themselves. The adoption of this law will support the development of trade in abortion pills, allow for the opening of an abortion “clinic” in Warsaw, lower the standard of care for women and increase the threat to the lives of pregnant women.

Dear Parliamentarians, do not allow this harmful project to become law in Poland! Do you want to support a law that kills children, is harmful to women and families, demoralizes the medical community and openly supports the abortion lobby and its industry?

Who has the right to kill an innocent man?

We appeal to you to reject the draft of this harmful act in its entirety. The future of Polish is in your hands.

On behalf of Catholic Medical Associations:

  • Elżbieta Kortyczko, MD, PhD, specialist in neonatology and paediatrics, (www.kslp.pl), President of the Catholic Association of Polish Doctors, (KSLP) e-mail:ekortyczko@gmail.com
  • Prof. Bogdan Chazan, specialist in gynaecology and obstetrics, Vice President of KSLP
  • Dr. Grażyna Rybak, specialist in pediatrics, (www.kslpmazowsze.pl), President of the Mazovian Branch of KSLP (OM KSLP) e-mail: grazyna.rybak@op.pl
  • Andrzej Niemirski, MD, Internal Medicine Specialist, Family Medicine Specialist, President of the Radom Branch of the KSLP (OR KSLP)
  • Małgorzata Prusak, M.A., Ph.D., specialist in pharmacy, Master of Theology, (www.sfkp.pl), President of the Association of Catholic Pharmacists Polish,
  • Elżbieta Puacz, MD, PhD, microbiology specialist, public health specialist,
  • President of the Catholic Association of Laboratory Diagnosticians, elapu@poczta.onet.pl
  • Tadeusz Wadas, M.D., M.A., M.A., Doctor of Health, Specialist in Nursing and Intensive Therapy, President of the Catholic Association of Polish Nurses and Midwives (www.kspipp.pl)
  • Prof. Jerzy Jurkiewicz, specialist in neurosurgery, Chairman of the Peer Court of KSLP
  • Marzenna Koszańska, PhD, paediatrics specialist, Vice-President of OM KSLP
  • Małgorzata Kępińska, MD, PhD, neonatology and paediatrics specialist, Delegate of the KSLP Regional Medical Centre
  • Marzena Grzybowska, PhD, specialist in neurology, Secretary of the KSLP Municipal Office
  • Barbara Antoniak, PhD, gynaecologist, Gynaecology and Obstetrics Section of KSLP
  • Izabela Pakulska, PhD, internal medicine specialist, member of KSLP
  • Anna Szopa-Tyszecka, PhD, pulmonology specialist, Holy Family Medical Community

[1] Deputies’ bill amending the Act – Penal Code, which was submitted to the Sejm on 26 July 2024, paper no. 611,

[2]Legal opinion on the Deputies’ bill amending the Penal Code (decriminalisation of abortion) Ordo Iuris analysis chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://ordoiuris.pl/sites/default/files/inline-files/Opinia_prawna_w_sprawie_ii_projektu_lewicy_.pdf, – (the bill does not protect women’s rights, it is extremely anti-women, because it provides for limiting the criminality of m.in people who perform abortions who do not have the right to do so). appropriate competences (proposed repeal of Article 152 § 1 of the Penal Code).