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POLISH REPRO NEWS

POLISH REPRO NEWS, 4 (14) /06

Federation for Women and Family Planning, Poland, www.federa.org.pl

September 2006

Polish Vice Prime Minister calls for the constitutional protection of unborn life. A real threat of further restrictions on the antiabortion law in Poland is present. According to the existing bill, termination of pregnancy is legal to save womens life and health, when the fetus is badly deformed or when the pregnancy is a result of a crime. Although the law is already restrictive, there is a political initiative to make abortion fully illegal. Roman Giertych, the Polish Vice Prime Minister also at the position of Minister of National Education and the president of the League of Polish Families (LPR) political party appealed on Saturday to all parliamentarians for their support for the amendment of the article 38 of the Polish Constitution. Article 38 states that The Republic of Poland shall ensure the legal protection of the life of every human being. The LPRs proposal is to add the phrase from the moment of conception at the end of the sentence. Giertych claims that the introduction of the constitutional protection of unborn life will be a milestone in realizing John Paul II Testament. He also dared to compare killing unborn babies with Holocaust.

The amendment of the Article 38 will be put to the vote in about one week. As for today, Giertych has been already assured by the second Vice Prime Minister, Andrzej Lepper, that his party Self-Defence (Samoobrona) will support the amendment. Both parties, the League of Polish Families and Self-Defence stay in coalition with the last election winning party Law and Justice (PiS). Everything depends on the decision of the PiS now but still its attitude towards the constitutional amendment remains ambiguous and indefinite. One of the prominent members of PiS and the parliamentarian speaker, Marek Jurek stated on Tuesday that indeed there is such a need to guarantee the protection of life from the moment of conception in the Constitution.

The League of Polish Families is known from its nationalistic, fundamental and anti-choice viewpoints. Last year, Maciej Giertych, Roman Giertychs father and member of the European Parliament, organized a radical anti-abortion exhibition in the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

Polish Federation for Women and Family Planning is organizing action against LPR's initiative. If you would like to support the protest against totally ban abortion in Poland, please sign up our open letter: http://www.federa.org.pl/signatures

Thank you for your support!

Magda Pochec