Tuesday 30 October 2012

Poland Gets Slapped Again by European Court of Human Rights

I first blogged about this horrible story from poor benighted Poland in 2008. (I've been at this too long.)

A 14-year-old girl was raped and got pregnant. Her mother braved Poland's insanely restrictive abortion laws and got permission for a termination.

But the local Catlick priest got wind of it and tried to bully the girl out of it -- in the FUCKING hospital.

All kinds of further hoo-haw ensued but the girl did get the abortion.

Apparently, they took the Polish government to the European Court of Human Rights and won with compensation of 61,000 euros.
In their ruling, which is subject to appeal, a panel of judges at the European Court of Human Rights found that there had been numerous breaches of the girl's rights.

The court found that she should gave had unhindered access to lawful abortion and that the details of her case should not have been made public by hospital authorities.

The BBC's Adam Easton in Warsaw says that Poland's abortion law is unlikely to become more liberal soon.

Poland's Catholic church is fiercely opposed to any attempts to ease the restrictions and a majority of mainstream politicians support the status quo.
This is not the first time Poland's Christian Sharia law has come to the attention of this court.

And as for having such draconian abortion laws, how about this?
An estimated 150,000 clandestine abortions take place annually in Poland, generating around $95 million of undeclared and tax-free revenue.
When abortion is restricted or illegal, it goes underground. Women and girls are put at risk and society loses.


h/t's for rape victim follow-up link Stephen Lautens and for clandestine Polish abortions link to Claudine Jacques

4 comments:

Sixth Estate said...

Kind of screwy to try and summarize illegal abortion in terms of lost tax revenues. It would have made more sense to estimate the number of women who suffered grievous harm, or died, as a result of an archic patriarchal law.

On that subject, so nice to see the church involved. I thought women's bodies had ways of "shutting that whole thing down." Or is this a "gift from God"? Or is this the God who never wants rape to happen, but is powerless to prevent it? Theology is so confusing.

fern hill said...

The source is the Warsaw Business Journal.

Yes, isn't it interesting that abortion is about business and tax or about men's control.

Not, as you point out, about women or their lives or health.

Sixth Estate said...

That explains it, then. I guess.

Godel Noodle said...

I thought women's bodies had ways of "shutting that whole thing down."

They do! A doctor said so! He would have described this consent-detecting physiological shutdown mechanism in detail, but it's, like, really complicated or boring, I think...?

Anyway, therefore it follows that the 14 year-old girl wasn't actually raped. She probably just got mad at the totally innocent, non-rapist guy (after seducing him) because you know how girls get...spiteful and deceptive (because of all the feminists, you know!).


Or is this a "gift from God"?

The unborn child was, of course, a gift from God before he or she was brutally mUrDerED!! I heard that's partially why we got hit by Sandy.


Or is this the God who never wants rape to happen, but is powerless to prevent it?

No, clearly He could prevent it (just as He could have stopped Eve), but He gave humanity free will, so they have to learn from their mistakes.

Plus, it's not that He never wants rape to happen. I don't know who told you that! Sometimes women need to be raped to teach them--or somebody else--a lesson. Take, for example, 2 Samuel 12:11:
"This is what the LORD says: Out of your own household I am going to bring calamity on you. Before your very eyes I will take your wives and give them to one who is close to you,
and he will sleep with your wives in broad daylight."

Theology is so confusing.

I've no idea what you're talking about. Nothing could be plainer! You're just overthinking it, probably. ;-)

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