Abortion issue threatens Polish admission to EU
Artykuł pochodzi z pisma "Guardian"
Government fears that Roman Catholic demands could fuel No vote in referendum to join union
Ian Traynor, East Europe correspondent
Thursday January 30, 2003
The Guardian
Only days before the treaty bringing the Poles into the EU goes to the European parliament, Poland's powerful Roman Catholic church is demanding that wording must be added to the treaty guaranteeing the country's strict anti-abortion laws against interference from Brussels.
The hugely divisive issue looks likely to help Polish eurosceptics in their No campaign ahead of the June referendum on joining the union. They are painting Brussels as a bastion of liberal, secular pro-abortionists. The Polish government is worried that the potency of the abortion issue could strengthen the No vote in the next few months.
Poland, like all east European countries joining next year, will be holding a referendum within the next eight months to decide whether it will join the EU.
The government caved in to pressure from the church by sending a note to Brussels this week seeking assurances that "no EU treaties or annexes to those treaties would hamper the Polish government in regulating moral issues or those concerning the protection of human life".
Cardinal Jozef Glemp, head of the Polish church, recently called for a special clause in the EU membership treaty recognising the "separateness" of Poland's position on abortion and also proposed that an eventual EU constitution should single out Poland's national sovereignty on the abortion issue. His demands have been taken up by Poland's bishops.
But the leftwing government of the prime minister, Leszek Miller, failed to raise the abortion issue when negotiating the terms of Poland's membership, concluded last month, not least because the government favours legalising abortion or liberalising the conditions under which abortion is allowed.
Michal Tober, a government spokesman, told journalists in Warsaw on Tuesday that the note to Brussels would "prevent EU opponents from using false arguments that the EU would impose on Poland any regulations concerning moral and religious issues".
While there is no direct challenge from Brussels to Poland's abortion laws, conservative Poles see a threat in last year's European parliament resolution calling on all member states and the east Europeans entering next year to legalise abortion. Pro-life campaigners in Poland and Ireland are also outraged at proposals going through the European parliament to provide aid, via the United Nations population fund, to help pay for abortions in developing countries.
Poland has the most restrictive abortion laws in eastern Europe, partly as a reaction to Soviet communism. During the cold war, abortion was available on demand throughout the Soviet bloc where it was in effect practised as a means of birth control.
With Poland's Pope John Paul II profoundly opposed to abortion, a new law banning the practice was enacted in 1993 but amended in 1997 to allow abortion in cases where the mother's life was in danger or when pregnancy was a result of rape or incest.
But the Pope is also a strong and hugely influential supporter of Poland's EU membership. While some Catholic nationalist media in Poland are running a virulent anti-Brussels campaign, the church leadership is firmly behind EU membership while also seeking to defend conservative family values.
One result of the abortion ban has been to generate a flourishing market in illegal abortions as well as a stream of traffic across the border into the Czech Republic where abortions are legal.
The leftwing government of Mr Miller came into office last year pledging to liberalise the abortion regime, but has since got cold feet. Mr Miller now says there will be no reform under the current government, while Poland's president, Alexander Kwasniewski, last week declared: "The present abortion law works."
The parliament speaker, Marek Borowski, wants a national referendum. "The present measure is simply bad," he said. The governing Social Democrats (ex-communists), he said, are "against such tough abortion laws and understand women's rights differently from groups linked to the church or those on the political right".
That may be true, but the president and the prime minister, both from the same post-communist party, oppose a referendum because it would be conflated with the EU referendum and would provide a rallying point for the eurosceptics.
Uniquely in the EU, Ireland enjoys a special provision declaring that no EU laws or rules can affect its constitutional ban on abortion. Malta, joining the EU at the same time as the Poles, negotiated a dispensation with Brussels safeguarding its abortion ban.
Amend – wnosić poprawki, to make alterations
Cave in – ugiąć się
Conflate – połączyć
Divisive – the one that creates divisions, stwarzający podziały
Enact - uchwalać
Hamper – to make something more difficult, utrudniać
Impose - narzucać
Interference – wtrącanie się, ingerencja
Incest - kazirodztwo
Outrage – oburzać się
Pledge – przyrzekać, zobowiązywać się
Rape - gwalt
Secular – not connected with church, świecki
Sovereignty – niezaleznosc, niepodleglosc
Virulent - zajadły
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