Ireland Casts a Shadow at Poland’s Pro-Life Crossroads

Cultural ties between Ireland and Poland run deep.  “Like Ireland, Poland has long been under the mailed heel of the oppressor,” proclaimed one American Catholic publication in 1896.  Catholicism, colonialism, and catastrophe long epitomized these lands.  A century and a quarter later, these characteristics have considerably diminished.

Some, though, would gladly build new, repugnant ties to replace the old.  This aim has been on display lately, as opportunists have responded to the death of 33-year-old Polish woman Dorota Lalik, who was five months pregnant.  When her water broke at week twenty of her pregnancy, doctors told her to lie with her legs up to restore proper fluid circulation.  She died of sepsis three days later.

Activists staged demonstrations across Poland.  Establishment-Left daily Gazeta Wyborcza fanned the flames with a story titled, “Catholic Fundamentalists Have Killed Another Woman.”  Leftist parliamentarians quickly submitted a bill to repeal the so-called “conscience clause” in Polish law.  The atmosphere is particularly heated since Poland will hold elections this fall, and opposition leader Donald Tusk had already announced his party’s parliamentary candidates must support abortion until at least 12 weeks. The opposition camp has eagerly pounced.

Yet, the Polish constitutional tribunal ruling evoked in these narratives is unrelated to the tragic death of this Polish mother and child.  The ruling makes a conspicuous exception for abortions when the mother’s life or health is jeopardized – itself a rhetorical framing that benefits the pro-abortion narrative (more on this later).  In such life-or-health cases, Polish law is no different from its counterparts in France or Germany.

Abortion activists also claim Polish doctors are afraid to employ potentially life-saving care due to threat of legal consequences.  According to Jerzy Kwaśniewski, President of the Polish Catholic legal organization Ordo Iuris, in the 27 years during the relevant anti-abortion law’s existence, during much of which time the current ruling party has been in power, not a single Polish doctor has faced prosecution for saving the life of a pregnant mother.

As numerous Polish observers have noted, Ms. Lalik likely died because of medical incompetence, and certainly not because of Polish legal provisions.  To the activists who have used her death to advance their cause, none of this is important.  Their narrative has dominated foreign and domestic rhetoric.  Ubiquitous English-language articles profile the travails of pro-abortion Polish women and adulate organizations that offer them abortion access.  Many tout polls misleadingly worded to suggest Poles support abortion on demand.

To Irish observers, the events are strikingly reminiscent of the death of Savita Halappanavar and subsequent political fallout in 2012.  As in that case, the lack of legal and medical evidence for the pro-abortion narrative is falling mostly on deaf ears.  Having succeeded so spectacularly in Ireland, the abortion lobby is unsurprisingly deploying the same tactics in Poland.

The Irish themselves are joining the fray.  One RTÉ story seized on, inter alia, a quote from a pro-abortion Polish protester calling for an Irish-style amendment and an attorney’s account showcased on a sympathetic† Polish broadcaster.  An Irish Times piece included quotation fragments from the Polish ruling party’s chairman that suggested indifference to women’s concerns.  (His unfiltered statements are available here.)  The Irish organization Abortion Rights Campaign has organized protests aimed at the Polish embassy in Dublin and promoted at least one abortion-themed product with proceeds distributed to “frontline groups” in Poland.  One might be forgiven for resignedly believing that these forces are likely to be – at least in earthly terms – on the “winning” side.

Part of the problem is attributable to knowledge dissemination.  Too many – even pro-lifers – blindly accept society’s framing of the debate, specifically on the potential medical necessity of an abortion.  One should not confuse with an abortion a medical procedure to save the mother’s life, even if it is likely to result in the child’s death, as affirmed in the Dublin Declaration.   “Spontaneous abortion” is a common medical term for a miscarriage.  Early delivery is sometimes necessary in the event of serious developments like acute preeclampsia.  Neither instance constitutes an “abortion” as society understands it, a procedure performed with the purpose of terminating a preborn baby.

Furthermore, a Polish woman is less likely to die of a pregnancy-related cause than her European counterparts.  According to the study “Trends in maternal mortality 2000 to 2020,” published by the World Health Organization, UNICEF, and World Bank Group, among others, Poland’s maternal mortality rate and proportion of deaths among women of reproductive age that are due to maternal causes* are lower than those of Ireland, as well as continental giants France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy, and Spain.  In fact, Poland boasts the second-lowest maternal mortality rate among the 186 countries measured in the study.  The United States – which, despite its very pronounced political debates on the issue, has more liberal abortion laws than its European peers – lags significantly behind in these measures.

The pro-abortion lobby is delighted to fuel the misconceptions – medical, legal, and political – which are associated with this issue.  In the years preceding the 2018 referendum, too few Irish grappled with these realities.  That clock now ticks urgently for the Poles.

A dark irony is that a Catholic country with pro-life laws, like Poland – and, until recently, Ireland – is unlikely to have a well-developed pro-life movement and is prone to rest on its historical laurels.  Furthermore, Poland resembles the Ireland of two or three decades ago in that it is experiencing rapid economic growth and the maturation of generations that have never known poverty, war, or political oppression.

The United States, for a variety of reasons, features a much more visible and politically successful pro-life movement than its European counterparts.  Perhaps Poles must develop American-style features in their own movement if they are to have any hope of resisting the globalist pro-abortion onslaught.

The landscape is not barren.  The forementioned Ordo Iuris has been particularly active in distributing legal and factual resources to the medical community and wider public.  Magdalena Korzekwa-Kaliszuk, Mariusz Dzierżawski, and Kaja Godek all lead Polish pro-life organizations and communicate to substantial online followings.  Marcin and Monika Gomułka are popular social-media influencers and advocates for marriage, family, and faith, under the name Początek Wieczności (The Beginning of Eternity); a pregnant Monika can be seen wearing a “PRO LIFE” shirt in some of the couple’s posts.  Television personalities Przemysław Babiarz and Krzysztof Ziemiec ensure broadcast journalism is not entirely one-sided.  Dr Bogdan Chazan once performed abortions under the communist regime, but he experienced a conversion and sacrificed his medical career by refusing to perform or refer for an abortion; he initiated a “Declaration of Faith of Catholic Doctors and Students of Medicine.”

Though these Poles might not enjoy the pro-life infrastructure of their American peers, they command more societal influence than their Irish counterparts one decade ago.  It cannot be said that “in many ways, the rejection [has] already happened,” in the words of one New York Times columnist gloating over the Irish referendum result.  The Polish pro-life movement endures, no matter how disadvantageous its environment might be trending.

Dear reader, remember the devastating emotions of May 25, 2018, the bitter reality of being outmanoeuvred, outspent, out-lobbied, outnumbered, and outcast.  Remember the humiliation of seeing churches deemed nonessential and a new creed and flag deemed compulsory.  Remember the simple acts of prayer and speaking truth entering the criminal realm.  We might not live to see society’s most vulnerable protected once again under the law of the Irish state, but don’t discount the impact of an experienced hand to your Polish brothers and sisters.

When the Polish Pope John Paul II visited Ireland in 1979, he encountered a country still devoutly Catholic yet burdened by the violence of the Troubles.  “I wish to speak to all men and women engaged in violence,” he implored the crowd in Killineer.

“I appeal to you, in language of passionate pleading.  On my knees I beg you, to turn away from the path of violence and to return to the ways of peace.”

May his exhortation acquire a new significance in our time!

*The World Health Organization’s Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR) is defined as maternal deaths per 100,000 live births.  The proportion of deaths among women of reproductive age that are due to maternal causes (PM) includes women of reproductive age, defined as 15-49. 

† Nota bene – Calling Poland’s TVN an “independent broadcaster” is misleading, as RTÉ’s “Eastern Europe Reporter” is undoubtedly aware.  It is widely regarded as a mouthpiece for the country’s opposition Civic Platform party.

Michael O’Shea is a visiting fellow at the Danube Institute in Budapest.  He is an alumnus of the Budapest Fellowship Program, sponsored by the Hungary Foundation and Mathias Corvinus Collegium.  His primary area of research is the Central & Eastern Europe region.  He is an American-born citizen of the United States and Poland and has paternal roots in Kerry and Monaghan.