Although the U.S. news doesn’t give the political situation in Poland a lot of coverage, you can still discern the beginning of a Catholic-infused regressive politics in that much-beleaguered land. And, given my friendship with Malgorzata and Andrzej (Hili’s staff), I hear more about Polish politics than the average American. And what I hear is NOT reassuring.

In 2015, the Polish people elected a known right-winger, Andrzej Duda, as President. He, and now the Prime Minister, are members of the PiS (“Law and Justice” party).  In league with Poland’s strong Catholic church, the government is proceeding to dismantle many progressive reforms enacted by previous regimes.

The latest action involves the government’s proposal for a total ban on all abortions. Yes, total: that means no abortion in pregnancies that might endanger the health of the mother, in which the fetus is medically doomed, or which resulted from incest or rape. Currently, all three kinds of abortions are legal, but, as Medical XPress reports, perhaps not for long:

 Abortion is currently only allowed in mostly Catholic Poland when the pregnancy poses a threat to the woman’s health or life, if it results from a crime like incest or rape or if the fetus is damaged.

But these regulations dating to 1993, which have been considered a tough compromise between the views of the country’s liberal and Catholic circles, are now being contested under Poland’s new conservative government.

A new civic group called “Stop Abortion” is gathering support to impose a total ban and is backed by Poland’s influential Roman Catholic Church.

Prime Minister Beata Szydlo and party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski said, as Catholics, they support the total ban but if it comes to a vote in parliament, party lawmakers will be able to vote as they wish.

According to Malgorzata, more than half of Poland’s parliament supports this bill, so it’s likely it will pass, making Poland the EU country with the most restrictive abortion laws.

The people of Poland knew what they were getting when they voted, and so I suppose they won’t grouse about this latest travesty. After all, most voters don’t require or want abortions. And so we’ll watch the spectacle of Poland marching back into the Dark Ages, with trumpets blaring and banners of ignorance waving.

I’ll be in the air soon, but Malgorzata might answer any readers’ questions in the comments. She kindly sent me some clarification about the bill’s provisions, which I quote:

“Here is some additional information about the proposed abortion bill:

It starts with a new vocabulary:

1. a ‘conceived child’ is alive and must be treated as human life from the moment an egg is fertilized.

2. a ‘prenatal killer’ is a person who causes the death of a conceived child.

Penalties: for causing the death of a conceived child, up to 5 years in prison; for inadvertently causing the death of a conceived child, up to 3 years in prison

No emergency contraception will be allowed, no in vitro fertilization either.

Which means, among many other horrors, that a surgeon who operates on acute appendicitis in a pregnant woman and she thereby loses the fetus may go to prison for inadvertently causing the death of a conceived child. Physicians will therefore be very cautious when prescribing necessary treatment for sick pregnant women, as even a strong dose of antibiotics could end the pregnancy (i.e., prison is looming).

Women who miscarry will be forced to prove that they didn’t do anything to cause the miscarriage, not even inadvertently.”

Most of you probably remember the tragic and preventable death of Savita Halappanavar, a 31-year old dentist who died in Ireland in 2012, killed by the policies of the Catholic Church.

The story is well known: Halappanavar contracted a serious infection at 17 weeks of pregnancy, one that would kill both her and the fetus if it were not removed. Grania’s post gives more details:

Her husband recounts that repeated requests for termination (in reality, an evacuation of the uterus) were refused because the fetal heartbeat was still present, and they were told, “this is a Catholic country”. She was left with a dilated cervix for three days until the fetal heartbeat ceased. Four days later [Halappanavar] died.

It wasn’t until a year later that it became legal in Ireland to abort a fetus to save the mother’s life!

Here’s her photo to remind us that Catholic dogma has horrible effects on the lives of many:

This almost happened in 2010 in the U.S., to a Michigan resident named Tamisha Means, who now tells her story in The Guardian. Means was 18 weeks pregnant and started to miscarry, but was refused admittance to Mercy Health Muskegon, a Catholic hospital.  Bleeding copiously and in terrible pain, Means went back to Mercy (an inappropriate name!) the next day, and was once again refused admission.

The next day she returned to the hospital for the third time, and only then, when she started going into labor on the spot, was she admitted.  The baby died, but, no thanks to Mercy, Ms. Means survived.  Apparently, doctors could have told her that her child had no chance of survival and terminated her pregnancy, but they didn’t. They withheld crucial information. As Means writes in her article:

Mercy Health Muskegon is a Catholic hospital required to follow policies drafted by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. As the Guardian recently reported, they have religious directives that guide their medical treatment and decision-making, which includes prohibiting healthcare workers from administering any treatment or information that could result in pregnancy termination. That includes decisions where the woman’s life is at risk, as mine was, and the baby could not yet live outside of the womb, as mine couldn’t.

I was not seeking to end my pregnancy. I was seeking proper medical care. I didn’t have control over my miscarriage, but the hospital had control over the care I would receive at that devastating time. Instead of acting in my best interest, religious beliefs were used to deny me the right type of medical care.

This is insupportable. As the Guardian reports at the link above, five different women had their lives endangered in a year and a half by Mercy’s refusal to terminate their pregnancies. In all five cases, the babies died. The religious directives governing such cases are ambiguous, and it looks as if Catholic health workers simply make judgment calls.

Means says she’s filed suit against the Catholic bishops with the help of the American Civil Liberties Union. A lower court dismissed her case, but she and the ACLU have appealed. Until the government forces all hospital to treat women appropriately, and not according to religious dictates, this will keep happening. (The proportion of hospital beds under control of the Catholic Church is growing in the U.S.) And Means says she’ll keep fighting:

Since filing the case I’ve learned about the bigger issue at stake: US hospitals are becoming increasingly affiliated with religious organizations. Ten of the 25 largest hospital systems in the country are Catholic-sponsored, and nearly one in nine hospital beds is in a Catholic facility. And in all these facilities, medical professionals should act in the best interests of their patients, not based on religious rules.

I hope that my case will help ensure that when we enter into the medical system to seek care that we are truly receiving it, unbiased and with respect. No woman should have to fear for her own life as she tries to create a new one.