The Polish parliament is creating a special committee to draft a bill that would ban abortion in the country following global outrage over Warsaw doctors leaving a baby to die after a botched abortion, according to news reports.
The move comes after the SOS Foundation and the polish Federation of Pro-life Movements approached the parliament asking to act on the call to review its abortion law.
Republika Television reported that the baby was born on March 7, 2016 at Holy Family Hospital in Warsaw at the 24th week of gestational age and cried and screamed for an hour before dying.
According to witnesses, the baby's cry was "impossible to forget.'' Nonetheless, medical personnel did not try to help the child in any way, WND reported.
Polish bishops immediately condemned the incident after it was reported in the media. "We believe that every person especially one who is completely helpless and dependent on us, should be of particular concern. This is a concrete way of realising the commandment to love one another,'' Churchmilitant.com reported
The incident also prompted pro-lifers to call for criminal charges to be brought against the hospital for its failure to save the child's life. The prosecutor's office has launched an investigation into the hospital to see if proper procedure was followed during and after the abortion.
"The investigation would examine whether there was a criminal violation of the law, which requires that medical care be given where the foetus has become capable of living outside the pregnant woman's body,'' Michael Dziekański, spokesman for the prosecutor's office, said.
The hospital insisted that it acted within the law. Spokeswoman Dorotta Jaslowska- Niemyska said tests on the patient, who was near the end of her 23rd week of pregnancy, showed the unborn child had Down syndrome. She added that the dignity of both mother and child were respected.
The nation with over 30 million Catholics has stringent abortion laws. Abortion is illegal in most cases "unless the mother's life is in danger or the unborn child has a severe and irreversible handicap," Life Site News reported.
The Polish Doctors Code of Ethics states that an unborn child is a patient deserving of medical care, and the Polish Criminal Code deems a newborn a "child" with legal rights and protections.
The groups expressed optimism they could fight it out with Prime Minister Beata Szydlo, who they say is obviously going to defend the present law called "abortional compromise" but may likely change her mind if they are given the chance to speak with her.
