Newsgroups: talk.politics.soviet
Subject: A new abortion law in Poland (from Clarinews)
From: verbit@birkhoff.harvard.edu (Mikhail S. Verbitsky)
Date: 26 Jul 92 04:44:08 EDT
Distribution: world
Organization: Dept. of Math, Harvard Univ.


The following article is reposted from Clarinews without
permission.

In article <poland-abortionU2lO525pe@clarinet.com> clarinews@clarinet.com (PATRICIA KOZA) writes:
>	WARSAW, Poland (UPI) -- The Polish Parliament Friday accepted for
>further study a strict anti-abortion bill envisaging jail terms for
>anyone who helps a woman obtain an abortion, and rejected two measures
>that would have permitted some abortions and put the issue to a national
>referendum.
>	The series of votes in the lower house or Sejm, which followed
>several hours of debate, was considered a major victory for the
>influential Roman Catholic Church, which has been pushing hard to
>overturn a communist-era law virtually allowing abortion on demand.
>	The anti-abortion bill, sponsored by 171 deputies mainly from the
>Christian National Union and other Christian-oriented parties, calls for
>up to two years in jail for anyone who aids a woman in obtaining an
>abortion, including women who perform abortions on themselves.
>	The only exception is for doctors in cases where an unborn child dies
>as a result of steps taken to save the mother's life.
>	The bill, which if passed would be the most restrictive abortion law
>in Europe, was referred to an extraordinary Sejm commission for further
>study on a 207-112-24 vote.
>	The Sejm rejected a milder draft law proposed by 91 deputies from the
>Democratic Union and four other center-left parties that would have
>permitted abortions in case of threat to a woman's life or health, if
>the fetus was deformed, if the pregnancy was the result of a rape or if
>severe economic circumstances would make parenthood difficult.
>	It also voted down an attempt to put the issue to a national
>referendum, letting Poles decide the legal permissibility of abortion in
>the specific cases listed in the milder bill.
>	Surveys have consistently showed that a majority of Poles would
>either like to see the current abortion law retained, or would favor the
>milder anti-abortion law.
>	Both bills were worked out on the initiative of the 30-member
>Parliamentary Women's Caucus as counter-proposals to the Christian
>National Union's ``Bill on the Protection of the Unborn Child.''
>	Poland is believed to have one of the highest abortion rates in
>Europe. Although no statistics are kept, official sources estimate some
>250,000 abortions are performed annually, while the church puts the
>figure at more than 1 million in a population of 38 million.
>	A more likely figure is around 600,000, caused partly because of the
>lack of alternative means of contraception. Even where condoms are
>available, they are clearly labeled ``anti-baby condoms'' in an apparent
>concession to the powerful church.
>	Although abortion is still technically legal in Poland, the rate of
>abortions plummeted after the governing body of physicians passed a
>regulation earlier this year prohibiting physicians from performing
>abortions on threat of revocation of their licenses. The regulation is
>being appealed by the Polish ombudsman to the supreme court.
>	The abortion controversy has raged since the end of communist rule in
>1989. A pastoral letter issued last December by the Polish bishops
>expressed deep regret over the failure of two previous parliaments to
>pass an anti-abortion bill, noting, ``The criminal act of 1956 (on
>abortion) is still in force.''

What should I add? Religion, being relatively harmless in West
behaves very ugly in ex-communist countries. I think this is 
because most people there cannot tell religion from totalitarian 
ideology which they worshipped most of their lifes. Now they
just worship different symbols, but the power these symbols
represent is the same - the power of total control and omnipresent
marasm.

Misha.
Newsgroups: talk.politics.soviet