United Nations Committee Criticizes Poland for Prohibiting Abortions 
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
January 19, 2007
New York, NY (LifeNews.com) — A United Nations committee has unduly criticized the nation of Poland for prohibiting most abortions. During a meeting this week at its headquarters, the committee that oversees the CEDAW treated said the European nation has not done enough to comply with it.
The Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute, a pro-life organization that lobbies at the UN said CEDAW committee members questioned the Polish government on its access to abortion.
In the group’s Friday Fax publication, it reported that committee members criticized the nation for allowing a conscience clause for physicians who don’t want to do abortions. The committee also questioned the Polish representative about illegal abortions in the nation.
According to CFAM’s report, the Polish official said that "every abortion is a tragedy" and said the biggest problem is the ability to provide support for single women who are pregnant. He said that need, not abortion, was the biggest question to address.
The European Union and the United Nations have put pressure on Poland to change its pro-life laws and abortion advocates previously anchored an abortion boat outside the country to do abortions just outside Polish waters.
CFAM’s Friday Fax report points out that the Human Rights Committee, in 2004, contended that Poland’s pro-life laws on abortion “may incite women to seek unsafe, illegal abortions, with attendant risks to their life and health" and it suggested that Poland legalize abortion.
When communism fell in this eastern European nation in 1989, Polish politicians reached an agreement with Catholic Church leaders to make abortion illegal in most cases. Poland currently prohibits most abortions but allows them in cases to save the life of the mother or in rape and incest.
The CEDAW committee will soon review the laws of other nations, including the pro-life nations of Colombia, Nicaragua, and Peru.
Related web sites:
Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute – https://www.c-fam.org
