Early last month Anand Grover, United Nations special rapporteur "on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health" visited Poland and told the country that its access to abortion is unsatisfactory. He admitted that he had not obtained official data on the number of illegal abortions performed in Poland, but added that Polish nongovernmental organizations put the figure at anywhere from 80,000 to 180,000 a year. The Warsaw Voice newspaper, reporting Grover's visit, failed to mention that these "nongovernmental organzations" are in fact the same ones campaigning for greater access to legal abortion.We are sure that many Polish people, whose natural instincts are pro-life, will see through this ruse. Firstly, let's look at the facts of the current story: an incredibly rough estimate (80,000 to 180,000) without comparison to official figures. Secondly, let's look at the history of abortion law in Poland. Before the passing of a law restricting abortion in 1993, a concerted campaign by pro-life groups and the Catholic Church resulted in a steady decline in the number of legal abortions from 105,333 in 1988 to 777 in 1993. Thirdly, let's look at the history of the campaign to legalise abortion in the US before the 1973 Roe v Wade ruling. Dr Bernard Nathanson, the abortion pioneer who became pro-life, admitted that he deliberately exaggerated the estimated number of illegal abortions five-fold.
As I've said before, the pro-abortion lobby should stop patronising Polish women with its deceitful, death-dealing agenda. The people of Poland have, in large numbers, this very week celebrated both the 20th anniversary of the end of Communist rule and the 30th anniversary of the first visit of the late Pope John Paul II to Poland. The last thing Polish people want is to return to a culture of death.
