National Christian Union (ZChN), a fundamentalist Catholic party. The text can now be submitted to a vote in the Polish parliament, the Diet, at any time.
It prescribes two year prison sentences for the person considered responsible for an abortion. That is, the doctor, or in the case of a self-induced abortion, the woman. The use of certain forms of contraception which intervene after the fertilization of the egg, like the IUD or the
RU-486 pill, which prevent the fertilized egg from establishing itself in the uterus, is considered as an abortion, and would therefore be subject to the same penalties.
Total ban on abortion
The ban on abortion will be total, without any exceptions, even in cases when the woman's life is in danger, the fetus is deformed or the woman has become pregnant as a result of a rape. In order to remove any temptation, the proposed law prohibits pre-natal exams.
It is generally estimated that there are between 180,000 and 600,000 abortions performed in Poland every year. The daily Warsaw paper Gazeta Wyborcza wrote that the passage of this law could result in the imprisonment of 60,000 people in the first year of its enactment, which would amount to a doubling of Poland's prison population! More seriously, the lumping together of abortion and certain contraceptive measures, would, according to the liberal weekly Polityka, lead to police gynecological examinations in the tradition of the practices of Ceaucescu's sinister Securitate in Romania.
The Catholic fundamentalists are ready to see this law passed at any price. "Under cover of a democratic debate we will see this law all the way through passage by the Diet" declared one of its supporters in the halls of the Diet. They enjoy the support of
the Prime Minister, Hanna Suchocka, who was the author of an earlier version of the law. Their opponents within the politicoparliamentry establishment seem on the other hand to be paralyzed by the fear of seeing a new governmental crisis break out and even more by the possibility that this will lead to a renewal of mass mobilization which, if successful, could rehabilitate collective action in the eyes of the masses. It is therefore likely that in spite of the rejection by the majority of the population, as seen in numerous public opinion polls, of any penalization of abortion, the law will be adopted by the parliament. Foreign pressure essential
Only the pressure of foreign public opinion - to which the neo-liberals who govern Poland are sensitive — can avoid a sharp blow dealt to half of the Polish population and a big step forward towards the establishment of a religious state. *
/V fund drive
OUR thanks go out to the following readers for their response to the International Viewpoint fund drive: J.A. (GB), B.H. (SWE), A.S. (USA), R.W. (USA), A.M. (USA), M.T. (GB), D.M. &
B.F. (USA), T.V. (FRG), R.D. (USA),
M.B. (USA).
IV supporters in Denmark have had a good response to a subscription drive launched over the summer. Perhaps to reflect the mass anti-Maastricht, pro-decentralization sentiment in their country, they have even taken over the work of handling the payment and subscriber complaints departments. This is a great help for both the
/V team and Danish readers alike - a model which bears emulation the world over. Thanks, Copenhagen!
We are renewing our call for special donations to safeguard the future of International Viewpoint and the
Fourth International's theoretical journal, International Marxist Review.
And remember the old watchword: if each current subscriber could find another, our objective of financial stability could easily be met.
The special introductory subscription offer is still good. First-time subscribers can receive /V for three months for only $11/£6/60FF.
Please send subscriptions and donations to IV, 2 rue Richard Lenoir,
93108 Montreuil, France. Cheques and money orders should be made out to "PEC" . And please indicate that you are contributing to the fund drive. Further payment details can be found on page 2. *