• In 1993, the new freely elected Parliament passed a law forbidding abortion. The media and liberals screamed: “You now have the legal power to do this, but you won’t stop abortions. They will just go underground, and women will be injured and die. They will be instrumented in the back alley and then, bleeding and infected, they will flood into your hospitals as ‘miscarriages.’”
• The law was passed and the number of abortions dropped precipitously. 1980 = 138,000 2000 = 138
• Were the ominous predictions realized? Miscarriages 1990 = 59,076 1999 = 41,568
• Deaths due to “Pregnancy, Birth & Confinement” 1991 = 70 1997 = 24
• Neonatal deaths/1,000 live births 1990 = 19 1998 = 9
• llegal Abortions in 1999 = 99
• Total number of gynecological admissions also dropped.
• Not only did none of the dire predictions materialize but, instead, Polish women are healthier and have fewer gynecological problems than when abortion was legal and common. Three separate government agencies report annually and agree on these statistics.
“How the Law Protects Life — the situation in Poland; P. Wosicka, June 2001, Fundacja GIos dia Zyoia Report of
the Council of Ministers on the Implementation in 1999, of the law of Jan. 7, 1993, Warsaw, 2000 Croatia.