WARSAW – Legislators have approved a plan on Friday that offers payments to families that have a child with any disability. This proposal is oriented to curb the high amount of abortions in the country.
The “For Life” legislation gives the family a payment of $1,000 (4,000 zlotys), after the birth of a disabled child or one with a life-threatening disease and it is expected to take effect this same year. Elzbieta Witek, a member of the lower house of the Polish parliament, said that the money is intended to represent the “first step” to families with this condition. Nonetheless, these families are demanding that the government should grant an even higher aid that starts with $325 (1,300 zlotys) per month, for a correct full-time parent care of the child.
The government of Poland is formed by the Law and Justice conservative party, that backs the Catholic Church. They have been looking for ways to ban the abortion of deformed or sick fetuses and even on those children with no chance of survival, to make possible a baptism and burial.
Women escaping the Polish law
Polish legislation right now bans abortion in all cases, except if the mother’s life or health is in danger, when the fetus is irreparably damaged or when the pregnancy came from rape or incest. Even when all of this cases of abortion are legal, the doctors often refuse to perform them because of the threat of severe prison terms. They claim to be “conscientious objectors.”
The official number of abortions per year is about 1,500. However, experts say that this number rises to 150,000 abortions committed illegally and secretly, in a nation of 38 million citizens. According to the national government, most of this cases are related with fetuses with genetic defects such as Down syndrome, among others.
The Central European nation has one of the most restrictive legislations on abortion-related matters. This is producing many of their potential mothers to travel abroad and perform their abortion in a country where is perfectly legal and safe. They often go to Germany, Slovakia, Czech Republic or the Netherlands, to escape from all the regulations that came from a conservative Poland government. If not, the polish women import banned abortion pills from the outside or execute the abortion with non-medical people that want to earn some extra cash.
While several protests continue in the streets of Poland, it is expected that Andrzej Duda, President aligned with this law proposal, signs into the new legislation in the following days.
Source: Fox News