Soon, the European Parliament will hold a debate on the proposal of the European Citizens’ Initiative “My Voice, My Choice,” which provides for the creation of a special mechanism to fund abortion in Poland and other countries that protect the lives of unborn children. The resolution calling on the European Commission to support the initiative has already been approved by the European Parliament’s Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality. A vote is coming up in the European Parliament’s plenary chamber.
Abortionists want the EU to fund the killing of unborn Poles.
On December 2, the European Parliament will hold a debate on the European Citizens’ Initiative “My Voice, My Choice”, which proposes establishing a special mechanism for funding abortions in Poland and other countries that protect the lives of unborn children.
It is an act of contempt toward the Polish constitutional order and an obvious act of ideological aggression—comparable to the imposition of abortion on Poland by the German occupier in 1943.
The authors of the proposal demand that EU funds cover the costs of transportation, lodging, and doctors performing abortions.
“For example, if a Polish woman wants to have an abortion in the Netherlands, all she will have to do is order pills or show her passport at a clinic. And that’s it. She will receive a free, safe abortion,” said Marta Lempart of the self-styled “Women’s Strike” in an interview with left-wing newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza. The group gathered signatures for the initiative in Poland. In other European countries, the signature drive was funded by the largest pro-abortion organizations in Europe, linked, among others, to George Soros’s Open Society Foundations and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
The resolution calling on the European Commission to support the initiative has already been approved by the European Parliament’s Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality. A vote is coming up in the European Parliament’s plenary chamber. We must act quickly!
We are fighting for the lives of the unborn at the EU forum
Before the vote, our experts will deliver to MEPs a memorandum outlining our arguments, in which we will demonstrate that creating an EU mechanism to fund the killing of unborn children amounts to the de facto harmonization of abortion practice across the entire EU, constituting a flagrant violation of the EU Treaties and a breach of the principle of respect for the constitutions and laws of the Member States. These, in accordance with the Treaties, should themselves decide on the scope of legal protection of life.
I hope that the systemic arguments will appeal to the majority of Members of the European Parliament.
However, in the event the resolution is adopted, we are already preparing potential legal measures to prevent the abortion initiative from taking effect. We will submit our critical analyses to the European Commission, which in the past has repeatedly rejected citizens’ initiatives, deeming them outside the scope of its authority or too controversial. If that doesn’t help either, the proposal will go to the European Council, where it could be blocked by representatives of the governments of EU member states. We will send the analysis we are preparing to all governments supportive of sovereigntist movements—regardless of their stance on the protection of life. There is no doubt that such a breach of the treaties would encourage further violations of states’ sovereign competences.
So we have months of hard work ahead of us. The lives of thousands of unborn Poles will depend on our mobilization and our ability to launch an international coalition.
European Court of Human Rights judgment on abortion in Poland
Misfortunes come in pairs. As the European Parliament prepares to debate funding the killing of children, the global abortion lobby has launched an attack on Poland and on the defense of life in our country—using lies and manipulation, as usual.
In recent weeks, the media have extensively covered the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights. In many articles, we could read that the Court’s judges found the ban on eugenic abortion in Poland to be contrary to the European Convention on Human Rights. In this vein, the matter was covered by Onet and Gazeta Wyborcza, among others. In turn, Newsweek Polska called the ruling “a gift for Tusk” and “an opportunity” to change the law protecting life in Poland.
Left-wing lies about the ruling spread so widely that even some pro-life circles were sharing the claim that the judges of the Strasbourg Court had ruled that it was necessary to abandon the legal protection of life in Poland.
It is precisely at such moments that the work of Ordo Iuris lawyers and experts is crucial. We had to immediately publish an accurate analysis of what the Court actually ruled, exposing the extent of manipulation by the mainstream media.
What is the truth about the latest ECtHR judgment?
Although the ECtHR judges did in fact find that there was a violation of Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, concerning respect for private and family life, nevertheless—contrary to the left’s narrative—the ruling does not challenge the imposed ban on eugenic abortion as such, but only the manner in which it was enacted. The European Court expressed reservations about the manner in which the bench of the Constitutional Tribunal was constituted, as well as the “general uncertainty as to the law in force,” caused by Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki’s months-long delay in publishing the Constitutional Tribunal’s judgment in the Journal of Laws.
At the same time, the ECtHR judges rejected allegations that the abortion ban in Poland violated Article 3 of the Convention, which prohibits torture and inhuman treatment. The arguments put forward by Ordo Iuris lawyers contributed to the dismissal of this allegation; in a legal opinion submitted to ECtHR judges, they argued that the European Convention on Human Rights leaves signatory states a margin of appreciation in regulating laws concerning the protection of life, as reflected in the ECtHR’s case law to date.
We promptly published an analysis, in which we demonstrate that the ECtHR judgment in no way recognizes abortion as a “human right” and does not require Poland to abandon the adopted standard for the protection of life. Our voice was particularly important here, as we were the only organization countering the false narrative of abortion activists on this issue.
Our analysis and clarifications were published and cited in many media outlets, helping to slow the wave of manipulation.
The Supreme Court sides with life
The Polish Supreme Court also recently spoke out against the lies about the existence of a “right to abortion,” dismissing the cassation appeal filed by the parents of a girl with Down syndrome, who were seeking more than three million zlotys because during the pregnancy doctors did not refer the mother for additional prenatal tests that would have made it possible to detect the child’s genetic defect and would have allowed him or her to be killed by abortion (this occurred before the 2020 ruling of the Constitutional Tribunal that banned eugenic abortion in Poland). The Supreme Court stated unequivocally in its reasoning that human life (including that of a person with Down syndrome) is of the highest importance and cannot be considered harm.
For years, lawyers from the Ordo Iuris Institute have consistently and firmly pointed out that there is no “right to abortion” in either Polish law or international law binding on Poland. Unlike the “right to life,” which is the foundation of the human rights system and also applies to unborn life.
We also recall this fundamental truth on the international stage. Last month I had the honor of personally attending a conference held in Washington on the 5th anniversary of the signing of the Geneva Consensus Declaration—a document in which nearly 40 countries from around the world bravely stood in defense of life, opposing the expansion of the catalog of “human rights” to include the non-existent “right to abortion.”
The fact that, as the Ordo Iuris Institute, we were invited both to take part in the ceremonial signing of the Geneva Consensus Declaration five years ago and to participate in the October conference marking the fifth anniversary of its signing clearly shows that the achievements of Ordo Iuris are recognized and appreciated around the world.
Advocate Jerzy Kwaśniewski – President of the Ordo Iuris Institute.
Source of cover photo: Ordo Iuris
