Let us save life

Andrzej Tarwid

On 28 June 2011, the bill protecting human life from conception is coming up for first reading in the Parliament. So far 600,000 people have supported the amendments prepared by the pro-life organisations. It is time for You, Dear Reader, to ask your MPs whether they are for life.
Last Tuesday of June all Catholics should be focused on the Parliament of the Republic of Poland. The Parliament has planned to discuss the bill that bans killing unborn children. The MPs will have to decide whether they will reject the proposed amendments or refer the social project to committee for consideration. ‘I hope that the MPs will support our amendments. Currently, ca. 500 children are killed legally every year. And we want to change this unlawfulness – since one cannot call the possibility of killing the innocent a law,’ says Mariusz Dzierzawski, an activist of the PRO Foundation,’ who is going to present the bill before Parliament. The bill is not big. It is written on one page. The members of the Social Committee of Legislative Bill ‘Stop Abortion’ think that the name of the present law – Act on planning family, human embryo protection and conditions of permissibility of abortion – is internally contradictory. That’s why the name should be change to ‘Act on the protection of human life from conception.’ The preamble must be removed and the first article should have two more points as follows, ‘Every human being has the right to life from the moment of conception’ and ‘The state shall protect life and health of a child from conception.’ The initiators of the amendments demand removing all the articles of the act that permits abortion. And the articles concerning support of woman whose pregnancy is endangered could be transferred to the Social Assistance Act.
‘If the MPs pass the bill Poland, besides such countries as Ireland and Malta, will have a law that protects the unborn children best. And for all people of conscience it will be a reason for pride that in Europe we lead the way in what is good,’ Dzierzawski says.

All-party team and the latest opinion polls

‘It is good that a bill protecting life has been filed in the Parliament as a social initiative,’ Jan Dziedziczak evaluates. ‘Thanks to that the bill cannot be labelled as a party initiative,’ the MP of the Law and Justice Party explains. He initiated the creation of the Parliamentary Team for the Protection of Life at the beginning of June. So far 64 MPs from the following parties: PiS, PO and PJN joined the team. Soon some members of PSL will join it. ‘Thanks to that we, all-party MPs, will struggle for the protection of life and will support the social project to be moved to the committee for consideration, so we can discuss it further,’ an MP says. During the first reading in the Parliament the MPs can reject the bill. ‘But such a decision would mean that those voting ‘against’ tell all those who supported the bill that their votes have no meaning,’ Dziedziczak says. The law says that social legislative bills must be supported by at least 100,000 people. When several months ago the members of the Legislative Bill Committee presented its bill to the Speaker they did not bring 100,000 but they brought over half a million signatures. ‘The collection lasted only three weeks. It shows how many people support our initiative,’ Dzierzawski evaluates.
Recent opinion polls confirm that more and more Poles opt for the total protection of life from the moment of conception. When that issue was surveyed in 1993, i.e., when the present law was abiding, every third respondent was ‘for.’ The survey conducted at the beginning of this month shows that 65% of Poles are against killing the innocent babies. 18 years ago the advocates of abortion claimed that mostly old people were for pro-life. In 2011 the biggest support for the unconditional protection of unborn children is among people at the age 15-24. In this group as many as 76% of the respondents opt for a complete protection of life.

It is time for You!

Despite these positive tendencies it is not certain what the MPs will do with the bill. The left-wing environment, the politicians of the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD), the liberal media and pro-abortion business will try to exert pressure on the MPs to reject the proposed amendments. Let us remember that in this term of the Parliament another social bill to ban the method of in-vitro fertilisation was rejected. What can we, voters, do to protect innocent children?
In the first decade of June 2011 the Father Piotr Skarga Association for Christian Culture began the action ‘Phone your MP’ that is an appeal to the MPs to vote for the right to life for every child. Within the framework of this action the website www.nienarodzeni.pl was created and the telephone numbers and postal addresses of all MP offices in Poland can be found.
‘After three days of the action we received the first information that people wrote and called the MPs asking them whether they were for the protection of life. We also know cases of people who visited the MP offices to get to know the opinion of their MPs concerning the conceived life,’ Piotr Kucharski who co-ordinates the action in the region of Malopolska, tells ‘Niedziela.’ The last chance to make a phone call or visit your MP is on Monday 27 June. ‘Please do not get discouraged if your MP will be out of the office. His official will inform him what his voters wanted to know, especially if there will be many voters visiting his office,’ Kucharski says. And Dzierzawski adds, ‘Let us remember that our attitude decides whether we will save someone’s life in the future.’

"Niedziela" 26/2011

Editor: Tygodnik Katolicki "Niedziela", ul. 3 Maja 12, 42-200 Czestochowa, Polska
Editor-in-chief: Fr Jaroslaw Grabowski • E-mail: redakcja@niedziela.pl