Efforts to protect the life of the unborn are not attracting much attention during the Polish election campaign. At the moment, more important issues seem to be focused on controversies around songs and President Andrezj Duda’s attempt at being a rapper.
Back in 2007, the then Speaker of the Sejm, Law and Justice (PiS) party’s Marek Jurek tried to initiate a constitutional reform that would have ensured protection of life from conception. His draft was backed by 60 percent of MPs.
Both then and now, ruling party leader Jarosław Kaczyński did not support the bill as he feared the measure could lead to disintegration of the ruling coalition. But the government soon fell anyway and PiS lost power for a period of eight years.
The fall of the government had nothing to do with the issue of abortion.
It’s hard not to have a feeling of déjà vu when one sees the ruling party kicking the issue to the corner once more. The ruling majority has sent into committee the ban on eugenic abortions as it did not want the legislation to be processed before the presidential election.
Abortion certainly is not an issue in the election campaign, but President Duda is suffering from controversies around the mismanagement of a state radio station, his own feeble attempts at being a rapper, and the fact that the opposition managed to replace a poor candidate with a stronger one.
The ruling majority wanted to avoid losing support over a major cultural matter and now is losing it for reasons far more trivial.
Duda still leads in the polls, so maybe history will not repeat itself.
The parliamentary elections are still many years away, so the government should remain in post. But it is evident that attempting to have a quiet life by not raising the fundamental issue of protecting unborn will not work.
