Appeal of the Board of Directors of the KSLP to parliamentarians in defense of the lives of Polish children and families

The Main Board of the Catholic Association of Polish Doctors has issued an appeal to parliamentarians before another attack on children’s lives in the form of an attempt to change the law.

Dear Members of Parliament, Warsaw, 4 November 2024

We appeal to you to unequivocally defend the life and health of Polish children, women and families during the vote on the bill decriminalizing abortion, scheduled for the Sejm session on November 6-8, 2024.

Based on the legal analysis of the Ordo Iuris Institute’s bill amending the Penal Code (decriminalization of abortion), which was submitted to the Sejm on July 26, 2024 (as paper no. 611), and our medical knowledge and experience, we believe that:

The bill provides for a number of changes in the provisions of the Penal Code concerning abortion, significantly limiting the legal protection of the life of the conceived child as well as the mother.

  • The aim of the bill is, m.in, to abolish criminal liability for abortion by a person without medical education or in conditions that violate certain sanitary requirements.
  • The bill provides for the abolition of criminal liability of the perpetrator of illegal abortion before the end of the 12th week of pregnancy.
  • The explicit purpose of the proposed amendment is to minimise the criminal liability of perpetrators of crimes of providing assistance or incitement to unlawful abortion (even if it is not punishable). This will result in limiting liability for acts against women’s life and health.
  • In particular, according to the intention of the drafters, liability under Article 154 of the Penal Code would be avoided by persons performing abortion resulting in the death of a woman if 12 weeks have not elapsed since the beginning of pregnancy. Similarly, liability under Article 154 would not include assistance in abortion resulting in the death of a woman or incites to do so.
  • The drafters postulate the actual restoration of the so-called eugenic premise, inadmissible in the light of the ruling of the Constitutional Tribunal of 28 May 1997 (ref. K 26/96), repealed by the judgment of the Constitutional Tribunal of 22 October 2020 (ref. K 1/20), by abolishing the criminal liability of the persons committing this act. However, the Polish legal system does not provide for the possibility of “reversing” the effects of the Constitutional Tribunal’s judgments.
  • The justification for the bill in question takes as its starting point the erroneous assumption that the freedom to make decisions about abortion is protected under the Constitution of the Republic of Poland, while in fact such freedom is not subject to legal protection, and the basic object of constitutional protection is human life, including life in the period before birth.
  • Some experts have already expressed their negative opinion about the solutions proposed in the draft in opinions commissioned by the Sejm’s Bureau of Expertise and Regulatory Impact Assessment, pointing to their inconsistency with the provisions of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland.
  • Not only Polish law, but also binding international agreements indicate the need to ensure legal protection of human life. At the same time, the positions of international organisations cited in the justification of the bill to confirm the proposed provisions are not binding and do not repeal the existing constitutional, treaty and statutory provisions.
  • The constitutional health protection adopted in Poland also includes legal protection of the health of the child in the prenatal phase, and the non-therapeutic benefit in the form of termination of pregnancy should be considered as a benefit devoid of authorization in Article 68(1) and (2) of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland.
  • Scientific studies confirm that abortion is an independent risk factor for mental health problems, including depression, anxiety, suicidal behavior, and substance use disorders.
  • Abortion also leads to somatic health disorders, including infertility, spontaneous abortions, premature births and breast cancer.
  • Who has the right to pass a sentence on an innocent man: the mother, the court, the parliament? He has no right to kill. There is a right to life, which is protected by the Constitution of the Republic of Poland, the Code of Medical Ethics, human morality and conscience, and healthy social relations.

Ladies and Gentlemen, we hope that you will reject this project, we are waiting for your decisive action for the sake of life and health of Polish children, women and families!

On behalf of the Main Board of the Catholic Association of Polish Doctors

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, MD, PhD, specialist in gynaecology and obstetrics, Vice-President of the KSLP, Vice-President of the European Federation of Catholic Doctors