Since 1993, Poland's Family Planning Act allowed abortion until the 24th week of pregnancy in three cases: 1) the high probability of a severe and irreversible impairment of the fetus or an incurable life-threatening disease, 2) pregnancy posing a threat to a woman's life or health, and 3) pregnancy resulting from a prohibited act. A parliamentary action on October 30, 2020 remedied an inconsistency between the Family Planning Act and Article 38 of Poland's Constitution, which states, The Republic of Poland provides every human being with legal protection of life, and Article 30, The inherent and inalienable dignity of man is the source of human and civil freedom and rights. It is inviolable and its respect and protection is the responsibility of public authorities.
Pro-life advocates view legalized killing of imperfect pre-born children as eugenics, a danger to women, and a national moral failure. Eugenic selection of people in Poland will end, and prenatal tests will be conducted in order to actually help and treat the child in the womb. It will also end the terrible pressure on pregnant women to agree to kill their possibly sick children. Abortion in the 20th to 23rd week of pregnancy inflicts agonizing pain on the child and poses a great threat to the physical health of the mother, and the mental and spiritual consequences last for life. There will also be no outrageous situations, when a live-born child aborted in the 23rd week of pregnancy due to suspicion of disease, is abandoned on the hospital shelf without assistance so that he dies as soon as possible.
Tragically, prenatal testing is not always accurate, leading to the deaths of perfectly healthy and only slightly impaired babies with very positive prognoses.
Abortion advocates think that banning abortions of sick and Down Syndrome children is unreasonable and a tyrannical imposition on women. They believe that abortion in these cases is emotionally less traumatic for parents than raising a sick child, kinder to the child than subjecting her to painful medical treatments or an otherwise challenging life, and saves parents and third party payers expensive medical bills.
Within a week of passing the referendum, dissenters took to the streets to protest. Among them were members of the Religious Jewish Community of Warsaw that claims to represent the interests of Jews in the city, home to the majority of the 7,000 Poles who self-identify as Jews. True to form, the majority pro-abortion Jewish community transmitted the idea to the Polish citizenry and to rest of the world that Judaism is a death cult that endorses killing innocent unborn children, including innocent Catholic unborn children, who are seen as legally protected, precious assets in Poland. The Warsaw Jewish group stated publicly that they understand the anger of Polish women facing the loss of their right to make independent decisions about their health. “It is sad and painful that today women and men who support them are forced to defend their rights on the streets of Warsaw and all over Poland amid the coronavirus pandemic, which is dangerous for their health and life. We agree with the protesters that women have the right to decide for themselves and live with dignity.”
The statement prompted an inspiring and courageous retort from Rabbi Mayer Stambler, an emissary of the Orthodox Chabad-Lubavtich Hasidic movement, who asserted that the Warsaw community’s position was neither a consensus among Polish Jews nor in agreement with Jewish principles.
“The Torah sanctifies life, which means we cannot take lightly the taking of the life of a fetus, who holds the potential of decades of human life,” Stambler said in a statement. "Aborting a fetus, if not performed to save the mother’s life, could be tantamount to murder — a view," he said that “has been the position of the rabbis of Poland throughout history and is the position of anyone who cares about the authentic Jewish tradition.”
Stambler added that he hopes “the Polish government gives financial assistance to women who step back from carrying out an abortion so that they may raise their children more comfortably.”
Jewish majority pushback against abortion restrictions and other conservative views held by Polish voters prompted a Twitter post in August 2017 from Law and Justice Party member Bogdan Rzonca, who tweeted, “I wonder why there are so many Jews among those performing abortions, despite the Holocaust?” Ouch. Mr. Rzonca's question dared point out the moral bankruptcy and historical disconnect of the Jewish majority in his country in light of the 3 million Jews murdered by the Nazis during the Polish occupation.
https://www.yadvashem.org/holocaust/about/fate-of-jews/poland.html
Despite unrelenting support for legal abortion, Jewish protesters couldn't defend Jewish over-representation as abortion providers on the basis of virtue. Avoiding conscience based cognitive dissonance, they responded with immediate charges of anti-Semitism, Polish Chief Rabbi Michael Schudrich called it an “outrageous statement that smells of anti-Semitism.”
Abortion advocates dehumanize the person in the womb just as Jews were dehumanized during the war. Undeniably, baby killing is anti-Semitic every time a Jewish child perishes in an abortion. Blinded by abortion ideology, pro-abortion Jews alleged Jew hatred instead of recognizing their unrelenting barbaric bigotry against unborn children and perpetuation of mass slaughter. Like Jewish abortion advocates around the globe, progressive Jews in Poland unwittingly act as pawns of 21st century eugenics and population control movement crusaders who celebrate the death of every innocent pre-born child.
Jew hatred exists, as does disapproval of baby killing. Let's not confuse the two. Jews who deny the right to life of their own children in the womb are psychologically unequipped to defend Jewish culture from criticism, blaming 'right wing governments' for threats against Jewish continuity while prolonging the Holocaust by killing their own children. Only through spiritual renewal based in Judaism's respect for life will they have the moral conviction and intellectual honestly to protect themselves from real threats to Jewish survival. Bezrat HaShem, all Jews will soon embrace our life giving Torah.
May there be abundant peace from Heaven, and good life upon us and upon all Israel. Amen.
Cecily Routman, Founder & President Jewish Pro-Life Foundation
