Church Bulletin

Got this out of our church bulletin last Sunday. I have taken it from "The Church Around the World" volume 38, number 12.

Pro-Life Leader: Poland is Profoundly Pro-Life Culture

Abortion was first instituted in Poland in 1943 by the Nazi occupiers, whose stated goal was to exterminate the Slavic peoples under their control, and continued under the Soviet Communists. Throughout the Communist period, lay pro-life activists worked hard to retain a deep sense of the sacredness of human life under successive totalitarian regimes. Today, a dramatically dropping abortion rate in Poland is the payoff of the concerted work of those activists, says the vice president of the Polish Federation of Pro-life Movements, Antoni Zieba.

Polish law allows abortion in cases of rape or fetal abnormalities. Although Poland and Spain have similar abortion laws, in 2006 Spain reported 98,500 abortions, while in Poland that same year, there were only 360 abortions. This marks a massive reduction from the 1990's, when the number of abortions was 100,000 a year. During the Communist period, it is estimated that the total number of abortions was over 600,000 a year.

Zieba explains this disparity simply, saying that Poland enjoys a pro-life culture, so even though the law allows abortion, few Poles would consider it. He attributes this to the extensive apostolic work of lay Catholics during the Communist period and continues during Communism's decline. "Within the structures of the Catholic Church, we have engaged in intense activity in defense of the life of the unborn." Zieba pointed out that, while most of the world has been convinced abortion is the key to women's emancipation, in Poland, through the work of the pro-life movement, it is still remembered as a tool genocide popular with racist and inhumane totalitarian regimes.



Thoughts? I wonder what Obama would think of this. Considering he could say something similar. His ancestors can say they were mistreated by racists and kept in mini totalitarian regimes (southern farms) and seen as property, not humans. Yet, he is the most pro-abortion president this nation has ever had and has already started to change legislation regarding stem cell research. Yet, the most abortions done in this country right now are in the African American, low income, communities.

Too bad, unlike Poland, we can't learn from our past on that one. Obama may just lead the way too.