The new government is keen to ‘put things in order’ and is paying particular attention to problems related to – as it puts it – ‘reproductive health’. This wording itself partly defines the new authorities’ specific approach to these problems. After all, the word ‘reproduction’ refers to the reproduction of farm animals. Its use in reference to women indicates a special way of dealing with matters related to reproduction and the health of mothers and children. This approach is reflected in planned activities that give rise to the greatest concern.
Minister Izabela Leszczyna solemnly announces that the use of the conscience clause by doctors will not be possible if there is a risk to the patient’s life. Unnecessary, because this provision is known and applied without any reservations. There are voices that the conscience clause should not apply in medical care. It’s impossible. A doctor, midwife or nurse are people with the same rights as others, internal autonomy and a value system. Freedom of conscience does not result from an award by this or that government, but is an inherent right of every human being. A doctor is not and cannot be a weak-willed being who carries out all the orders of his superior. He or she cannot be hired for any procedure, especially one that involves killing someone. With his degree, a physician was licensed to diagnose and treat disease, provide relief from suffering, and not kill people.
The minister also announces that all hospitals will now fully implement the contract with the National Health Fund and obediently kill unborn children. Yes, conscience is a characteristic of an individual person, not an institution, but hospitals have certain traditions, some have employed people with the Hippocratic way of medical thinking for years and are known for ensuring that sanctity of human life is respected and above all: do no harm. In the meantime The minister announces that all doctors will be forced to follow her orders, and that all hospitals will ‘ensure the termination of pregnancy’. This means that all hospitals and all doctors who work there must be equally ‘immersed’ in the abortion world, that they must be slaves in doing evil, in detecting weak and sick, malformed children, or in following up of parental commands dictated by convenience. and insensitivity to the fate of their own children. No one can be blameless, everyone must be “damned”, no one can feel superior. It is then easier to manage human teams.
The minister tells hospitals: “If you want to have a contract with the National Health Fund, you have to provide a package of benefits.” That means: you have to kill children. In the meantime In 2015, the Constitutional Tribunal stated that medical entities cannot be forced to provide “morally sensitive” services, and in Italy most hospitals do not perform abortions. In our country everyone, even religious people, has to do it. What about the hospital’s patron? There are many hospitals in Poland that are proud of the name Saint. John Paul II. Should prenatal killings be carried out under this banner? It would then be necessary to put an end to this dissonance and give the hospital that was engaged in killing people the name of “heroes” for whom this practice was an everyday occurrence: Felix Dzerzhinsky, Lavrenty Beria or Ernesto Che Guevara.
If the easy availability of killing the unborn is to be made into a harsh law, we demand that public hospitals and doctors who work there be abolished from this obligation. We are convinced that the same doctors who assist in the birth of a child on one floor and, a little later, on the second floor, participate in the killing of babies, including those born just before birth, as provided for in the planned laws. A negative effect on the involvement of doctors in saving the lives of mothers and their children. Children in case of danger will have a negative effect on the quality of their work and their morale.. When doctors produce and kill children, human life will become a relative value to them. The conscience clause of doctors who are also heads of departments or directors of hospitals will become a major problem. Apparently they will be obliged to hire doctors who do not report that they have to make use of the conscience clause. What about their own medical conscience? Should they leave it at the entrance of the hospital they run? The new regulations will mean that a pro-life doctor will not be able to hold leadership positions. This is contrary to human rights.
If abortions must be performed out of necessity, which we loudly protest against, this practice can be carried out by trained thanatologists (murder specialists) in abortion facilities on the outskirts of cities, run by a non-governmental organization, as is the case in the Netherlands. In Poland this could be the Federation for Women and Family Planning. And doctors, nurses and midwives must have peace of mind, the opportunity to practice their profession peacefully, in the service of life and health.
It is difficult to agree with the argument currently prevalent in liberal circles that women are now afraid of becoming pregnant because they are denied the option of killing their child if it turns out to be disabled. The minister also promotes such theories, citing the tragic cases of mothers dying during childbirth that have occurred recently. However, the investigation conducted revealed that the cause of death was improper medical treatment. The current abortion law had nothing to do with this. Attempts are being made to justify the doctors making decisions in these cases by saying that they were ‘frozen’ by the law, which caused their temporary decision-making paralysis and prevented them from making correct, life-saving decisions.
Not a single doctor in Poland has been convicted for deciding to save a mother’s life, even at the cost of killing her child. Current legislation provides for the possibility of performing an abortion in case of threat to the mother’s life. But that also needs to be said emphatically Inducing labor or miscarriage in the event of a threat to the mother’s life is not an abortion, but an act taken out of necessity to save her. It is not an abortion if a doctor saves the mother and the child dies. An abortion occurs when there is an act that directly affects the life of the child before birth, which was not the case in the above cases. Therefore, we call on the Minister to stop misleading public opinion about the essence of abortion and the real causes of the tragic events in the hospitals in Pszczyna and Częstochowa, and to stop creating unjustified and unethical fears of married couples who want to expand their family.
The minister wants “women to feel safe in healthcare institutions when they turn to those who are called to take care of our health, to make it safe, bright and colorful.” We sincerely wish you the best of luck in such activities. Midwives report that the atmosphere in the hospital treatment room after an abortion is not “bright and colorful”, but anything but “bright and colorful”, which proves that the minister dreams of a pleasant atmosphere in hospitals where abortions will be a common procedure these are unlikely to become reality.
We are convinced that the safety of women’s health can be ensured through competent medical care given with heart and dedication, and not by facilitating the murder of their innocent children. The popularization of abortion, for any reason and for no reason, will result in a deterioration of the somatic and mental health of women, an increase in the number of cases of infertility, complications of pregnancy and childbirth, depression and suicide. Numerous scientific publications talk about it. Facilitating access to abortion means depriving medicine of trust and love in medical staff’s relationships with patients and their families.
The minister’s other formulations raise real concern and even fear: by announcing her actions, she wants to ensure that “the medical entity really has no conscience.” This bodes very poorly for these ‘entities’, the staff who work within them, and current and future patients. Sick people will avoid hospitals that declare they have no conscience, and no decent doctor, midwife or nurse will want to work in such a hospital. It will be quite dangerous and dark there, because medicine without conscience is dead.
I appeal to the Minister of Health with a polite request and a strong demand to refrain from actions that are contrary to constitutional values, the Code of Medical Ethics and the objectives of health care for mothers and their children. The implementation of these intentions will bring illness and death instead of patient safety and health.
READ ALSO: OUR INTERVIEW. Prof. Chazan: There is no connection between the lack of eugenics in the law and the tragic death of the mother from Pszczyna
Source: wPolityce