Polish Bishops Express Opposition To Council Of Europe Resolution Calling On Members To Legalize Abortion

Main Category: Abortion
Article Date: 07 May 2008 - 10:00 PDT

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Poland's Roman Catholic bishops on Friday released a statement expressing "firm opposition" to an April Council of Europe resolution that appealed to all 47 Council member countries to legalize abortion despite opposition from Poland and other members, Agence France-Presse reports.

The Council in its April resolution called for all member states to guarantee the right to safe and legal abortion. The Council's parliamentary assembly voted 102-69 in favor of the resolution. Abortion is illegal or severely restricted in some member countries -- including Andorra, Ireland, Malta, Monaco and Poland -- according to a Council report written by Austrian Parliament Member Gisela Wurm. Most members allow abortion when the life of the pregnant woman is at risk.

The resolution states that abortion should "in no circumstances be regarded as a family planning method" but that a complete ban on the procedure led to unsafe clandestine abortions and abortion "tourism." The Council resolution said women seeking abortions should receive medical and psychological care and financial assistance. It also denounced "de facto inaccessibility" to abortions resulting from the high cost of the procedure and unhygienic or overcrowded abortion clinics.

The bishops in the statement said that the resolution was an attempt by the Council to "impose administratively principles opposed to the basic sensitivities of the human conscience." Poland, which has a large Catholic population, only permits abortions in cases of rape, incest, to safe the life of the woman or when the fetus is severely malformed. According to official statistics, about 200 to 300 legal abortions are performed annually in the country. Some advocacy groups say as many as 180,000 clandestine abortions are performed each year in Poland (Agence France-Presse, 5/2).

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