A child was killed in a child
Czeslaw Ryszka
Fourteen year-old Agata from Lublin, who had been pregnant - I wrote about it last week - had an abortion on the last day when the abortion could be legally conducted (the Polish law allows abortion till the 12th week in case of pregnancy resulting from a criminal action, mainly rape). In this case the law was especially liberal because it was not a rape - the teachers had told the teenager’s mother that for months Agata had had sexual intercourses with a boy who was only one year older than her. The judge consented to the abortion because of Agata’s age - sexual intercourse with a child under 15 years of age is regarded as criminal action. Unfortunately, the judge did not take into account the fact that the girl had changed her mind several times and that she had written SMS messages to her friends saying that she had not wanted to kill her conceived child. This was the reason why Fr Krzysztof Podstawka, director of the Home for Single Mothers and president of the Life Protection Fund in the Archdiocese of Lublin, contacted her. Then the media accused him of intervening and forcing the girl to change her decision as well as of influencing the doctors’ decisions. In a word, the media treated the sorrowful fact as sensational news in all Poland; an ideological dispute was raised and every day ‘Gazeta Wyborcza’ wrote about the hospitals that refused to conduct abortion. Finally, the Ministry of Education, at the request of Ewa Kopacz, appointed a centre where the fate of the unborn child was completed. The ideology of death won. A human being died in the name of legal legalism. The heart of the mother, who initially had defended her child, was harmed. However, could a physically grown girl cope with the intellectual pressure and blackmail of the feminist and pro-abortion environments? Could she choose on her own between the voice of conscience and the legal regulations, which allow the killing of an unborn life in extreme situations? Unfortunately, even now I have read no statements that apart from the tragedy of one child something much worse happened: an innocent child was killed. At this moment someone can accuse me of fanaticism, of unfair accusations of the media or pro-abortion environments. Unfortunately, fanaticism concerns those who make the child’s right to live dependent on its mother’s opinion, on modern ideas being proclaimed, on blind consciences. This was the case of Agata from Lublin since the Federation for Women and Family Planning, with its president Wanda Nowicka, intervened. From the very beginning this environment wanted the girl not to have her child; they wanted her case become a precedence to change the Polish law protecting the life of the unborn children. That’s why, the teenager’s pregnancy resulting from rape was so much publicized in the media. Consequently, the pro-abortion environments forced the court of justice to consent to abortion. The unborn human being did not count; what was important was a heartless law, pure legalism and abstract paragraph. The pro-abortion environments that were sorry for the misfortunate girl treated her purely instrumentally as she served them as an argument in their fight for abortion, which is strongly confirmed by the fact that no pro-abortion environments cared for the child. The unborn human being became an object. Such cases will refer to this precedence in the future. I do not know how Agata will cope with his fact when she becomes mature and especially when she wants to get married and have a child... It is not known how the experiences have influenced her psyche but they must have exerted some influence since the facts cannot be cancelled. There are so many women who suffer from various disorders resulting from abortion! Everyone would like to turn back time; everyone wishes the facts had not happened. Certainly Agata will understand one day that she was used in the fight for abortion law. She will accuse people of not helping her. She will have a grudge towards her mother who must have assured her that if the child had been born their lives would have become horrible. It is a pity that the court shared this argumentation and legalized the abortion. I hardly understand the court’s decision - what it was based on, what was the prevailing argument. Was it only the mother’s fear concerning her daughter’s future? Fear should not be so important since proper Church’s institutions tried to help and many couples would gladly adopt Agata’s child. Who should be held responsible? I mentioned the court of justice but one can clearly see educational mistakes in family and school. We should say it straight: blame falls on parents who do not control what their children do. And blame falls on school, which only passes knowledge. The youth press should be accused as it encourages early sexual initiation. And first of all, we should point to the above-mentioned pro-abortion environments that aim at changing the law and increase the availability of abortion on demand. Therefore, the proposals of the leadership of the left wing party concerning liberalization of the life protection law should be regarded as anachronistic and incompatible with the situation of demographic crisis. Does the left-wing want to remind people of its existence? Of course, the left-wing can gain some voters by using slogans referring to the bill on abortion, which was in force during the times of the Polish People’s Republic, or by calling ‘in vitro’ fertilization a method of treating infertility. Much depends on politicians, good laws, which protect life from conception till natural death, laws that defend family and support the educational role of school... Unfortunately, European countries pass laws about prenatal genocide and euthanasia at present; homosexuals are allowed to legally adopt children whereas natural families are discriminated. Politicians should be the first to come to their senses.
"Niedziela" 26/2008