CONSERVATIVES ARE BLOCKING ABORTION IN THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT

MIROSŁAW PIOTROWSKI

In the European Parliament in Strasburg, to the request of our group of European Conservatives and Reformers a possibility of voting was blocked, concerning the report on reproductive and sexual health. It is a rare case because pro-abortion lobby in this Chamber is owned by the majority. The document sent to the commission contained many dangerous provisions. In the paragraph 26 it was emphasized that ‘health and reproductive and sexual rights are the basic rights of women and men whom it is impossible to restrict for religious reasons, for example, by signing concordats’. In other paragraphs not only was it demanded to have accessibility to abortion by everybody, legalization of abortion journeys, prohibition of punishing women and doctors doing illegal abortion, and also introducing abortion into auxiliary programs of EU (par. 78 and 83). This document required education concerning sex transformation and in vitro for single women and lesbians. There were suggestions that all these postulates should be rooted in the international law (par. 69). I think that the prepared document was to be a counter-balance for the European civilian initiative ‘One of us’, which was signed by nearly one and a half million citizens from many EU countries. This initiative is aimed at blocking financing projects by the European Union, in which human embryos are destroyed and guaranteeing of the human life from the conception. In the quoted report blocked in the European Parliament, Poland is pointed to, as well as Ireland and Malta as the countries in which the so-called safe abortion is ‘prohibited except for very strictly defined cases’. In the intention of the Women’s Rights Commission and Right Equality of the European Parliament, enforcing this document, it was to be passed at the moment when other EU countries still restrict accessibility to abortion’. Whatever form of a report-resolution does not cause legal consequences automatically, its acceptance might renew and strengthen the atmosphere in the EU which is not favourable for life protection.

Voting for life in the European Parliament, I belonged to the minority for many years. In my opinion the breach of pro-abortion lobby was possible because many Euro-parliamentarians do not want to reveal their opinion explicitly in the issue of abortion before the forthcoming elections for the European Parliament. We will use such situations in order to protect life and normality in Europe and in Poland.

(AA)

"Niedziela" 44/2013

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