Just last Friday, Polish lawmakers approved a plan to pay a specific amount to families whose child is born disabled. This is a policy aimed at curbing the number of abortions.
The anti-abortion goal plan, which is expected to take effect as early as next year, gives a one-time payment of 4,000 zlotys, equivalent to $1,000, upon the birth of a disabled child or one with a life-threatening disease.
The government official Elzbieta Witek said the money is intended as the "first step" of Poland's government to support for families with disabled children members. Such families have long been demanding higher aid, which currently stands at 1,300 zlotys, equivalent to $325, a month for a parent taking care of the child full-time.
According to News Max, the conservative Law and Justice government, backed by the Catholic church, is seeking to ban abortions of deformed or sick fetuses, or even those with no chance of survival, to make possible their baptism and burial.
Polish law now bans abortions except in cases when the woman's life or health is threatened, when the pregnancy results from rape or incest or when the fetus is irreparably damaged. But amid the threat of prison terms, doctors often refuse to perform even admissible abortions.
Government figures say that the official record is that there were 1,040 abortions performed in Poland last year, while experts say some 150,000 abortions a year are done illegally and secretly. The government says most of the legal abortions are performed on fetuses with genetic defects like Down syndrome and wants that stopped.
The Central European nation has one of the most restrictive legislations on abortion-related matters. This is producing many of their potential mothers to travel abroad and perform their abortion in a country where is perfectly legal and safe.
They often go to Germany, Slovakia, Czech Republic or the Netherlands, to escape from all the regulations that came from a conservative Poland government. If not, the polish women import banned abortion pills from the outside or execute the abortion with non-medical people that want to earn some extra cash according to Pulse Headlines.
While several protests continue in the streets of Poland, it is expected that Andrzej Duda, President aligned with this law proposal, signs into the new legislation in the following days. If this will be finally approved, families with disabled newborns should expect a certain amount from the Poland government.
