Poland’s top court has affirmed the right to life of unborn babies with disabilities.
The Constitutional Tribunal of Poland ruled that abortions on the basis that the child may have a disability violate the right to life protected in Article 38 of the Polish Constitution.
The global human rights organization ADF International intervened to highlight the clear protections, which exist in international law for unborn children, including those with disabilities. It argued that screening out unborn babies based on disability violates a country’s obligations under international law.
“Every human life is precious. Human rights protect all members of the human family regardless of their age or abilities. We welcome this ruling that recognizes that Poland’s abortion law, in effect, discriminates against people with disabilities by allowing medical professionals to end the life of a child when that child does not fit the ‘normal’ profile of what some consider ‘healthy or desirable,’” said Robert Clarke, deputy director of ADF International.
As a society, he said, they prohibit discrimination based on disability adding that the same should also be true for babies in the womb. It is encouraging, he added, to see the right to life protected in that way by an EU Member State.
In a press release from the Constitutional Tribunal, released ahead of the formal written reasons, the Tribunal stated, “that the unborn child, as a human being who is entitled to inherent and inalienable dignity, is a subject having the right to life, and the legal system must guarantee due protection for this central good.”
The Tribunal also called on the government to review the level of support provided to parents. The ruling will take effect when the judgment is published in the coming weeks.
More than a third of abortions performed in Poland on the basis of potential disability are due to a diagnosis of Down Syndrome. Globally, over 90% of unborn babies diagnosed with Down syndrome are aborted. The ‘non-invasive’ prenatal blood test makes the targeting of babies with Down syndrome even easier. It is being heavily promoted throughout the world. Many governments have introduced the test despite 1968 WHO guideline criteria, which states that population-wide screening is only ‘acceptable’ if a ‘treatment for patients with the disease’ is available.
