*UPDATED BELOW*
The story of a 14-year-old Polish girl known only as Agata made headlines abroad last week when her plight stemmed controversy in her home country. The problem? The girl was raped at school, become pregnant, and wanted an abortion — but the “pro-lifers” in Poland wanted to force her to continue the pregnancy and give birth. And so they harassed and threatened her and her doctors — going so far as to get her removed from her mother’s care and placed in child protective services:
Agata says she was raped in April by a fellow student and the assault left her “covered in bruises” and pregnant. She went to a gynaecologist, who informed the police and Agata’s mother. After discussing the matter, mother and daughter applied for permission to have an abortion. But when they went to the local hospital in Lublin, southeast of Warsaw, Agata was shown, alone, into a room where a priest was waiting.
The priest, Fr Krzysztof Podstawka, heads a local diocese organisation for single mothers called “Protection of Life”.
Agata said that the gynaecologist returned later and said she would not perform the abortion.
The girl said that the doctor and priest dictated a letter to her in which she agreed to keep the baby. “I just said yes to everyone to have some peace,” she told Gazeta Wyborcza newspaper. When her mother heard what happened, she contacted the Women’s Federation in Warsaw and, with their help, found a clinic willing to perform the abortion.
Waiting for them was Fr Podstawka and anti-abortion campaigners. Inside, doctors refused to perform the abortion, claiming they had been threatened.
Meanwhile, authorities in Lublin received complaints about the mother’s role in the case and, on their return, put Agata into emergency child care.
“I want to be a mother when I grow up, not now,” she told Gazeta Wyborcza . “Now all I want is my own mother.” Already in her 11th week, Polish law only allows legal terminations until the 12th week.
And even that sounds like a sanitized version of what went down:
According to reports provided by hospital employees, all hell broke loose when abortion opponents appeared at the hospital. – It was a horror – an employee says. They attacked her. In addition to the priest, there were journalists from Radio Maryja or Trwam Television. And the women from the anti-abortion organizations occupied the office. If we went on with the procedure, the “mohair berets” [translator’s note: conservative and older female supporters of Radio Maryja] would have devoured us.
The managers of the hospital confirm that the patient was admitted, but the procedure never took place. They do not want to comment on what has happened.
All of this, even though it’s legal in Poland for minor girls to terminate pregnancies.
The previous links are both from a Jezebel post last week, but there’s a positive update: The Polish health minister stepped in and located a hospital that would perform the termination.
The health minister’s reward for doing her job and helping a little girl? She might be excommunicated. And in one of the most devoutly Catholic countries in the world, that is not a small punishment. There’s no mention of whether the 14-year-old is excommunicated, although by the doctrine explained in the article, it seems obvious that she would be.
But that’s the “pro-life” movement for you: People who have no moral qualms about forcing a 14-year-old rape victim to carry a pregnancy to term and give birth against her will. I would think that at some point, anti-choicers would take a good hard look at themselves and think, “You know, it takes a real asshole to force child rape victims to give birth when they are already emotionally devastated and physically injured and clearly do not want to be forced to have a baby.” But, nah.
UPDATE: I didn’t bother hunting around for a bunch of articles on this, but the more I Google, the sicker I feel. For example:
Polish law permits abortion if the mother’s health is at risk, if the foetus shows serious deformities or, as in Agata’s case, if the pregnancy was the result of a crime.
“The problem in Poland is that doctors are not applying the law, by citing their conscience, and then breach their obligation under the law to find another place for a woman to go,” said Ms Plateck.
When Agata and her mother went to a local hospital in Lublin for an abortion, the gynaecologist refused and called in Fr Krzysztof Podstawka, an anti-abortion campaigner.
When the girl and her mother went to another clinic in Warsaw, Fr Podstawka was waiting with a group of campaigners and prevented the abortion taking place.
Emphasis mine. And did you notice the “conscience” appeal that Polish doctors are making, not only to refuse to perform abortions but to refuse to refer the patient to a doctor who will perform the procedure? And no doubt the gynecologist’s “conscience” simply required him to call up an anti-choice activist, in total violation of the patient’s right to medical privacy. Apparently anti-choicers aren’t too big on ethics.
But it gets even worse: The anti-choice groups claimed that the girl was being coerced into the abortion by her mother — an accusation that was patently untrue by the girl’s own account. She had to go to juvenile court and was taken away from her family and put in foster care. Emphasis mine:
Now the girl is back home but her mother still faces criminal proceedings. The gynaecologist who called in the priest is unlikely to face criminal proceedings; breaching medical confidentiality in Poland is regulated by ethical guidelines rather than the law and there is no sign that a case will be taken.
Those are some family values right there.
This case does clarify a few things (and not just the utter lack of empathy that antichoicers feel towards women and girls). It shows how utterly hostile the anti-choice position is to basic ethical and moral considerations. They’re willing to stalk and harass child rape victims, break up families, and breach doctor-patient confidentiality with the intention of inflicting further emotional (and potentially physical) harm on their patients. They refuse to do the most basic referrals if they dislike a particular procedure, and they threaten all who disagree with them with excommunication (not to mention harassment and violence). They’re even willing to abuse the criminal and juvenile justice systems to further their ideology.
And that’s precisely what it is: Ideology. The girl has terminated her pregnancy, but had she given birth, I’d bet a whole lot of money that those anti-choice activists forcing her to go through with it would have been nowhere to be found when she needed help with her child. I’d bet a whole lot of money that once the cute baby stage was over, they wouldn’t give a rat’s ass about how a 14-year-old child managed motherhood, or how that baby fares for the next several decades. “Pro-life” my ass. Life, with all of its difficulties and hardships and messes, is the least of their concerns.
Oh. My. Gods. This is possibly the most disturbing, disgusting, horrifying thing I’ve read in a while. I can’t believe people try to call this age ‘post-feminism’, as if everything has been achieved already, when this poor girl gets treated like this. (insert sad face)
There comes a point when a civilization must ask itself how far it is willing to go to defend it’s principles and the rights of it’s members. A point when two cultures, two world views, two fundamental systems of beliefs come to an impasse and only one will be able to survive the conflict. It has been obvious for years what the forced birth crowd’s stance is, how far they are willing to go. I know, I say this a lot and there are good reasons to dismiss my point, but all the same. I wonder if these animals would be so devout, so resolute, so savage, so willing to victimize people who are often already victims, if they knew that they would have to answer for their actions. What is likely to happen to this priest and his followers? Are they likely to face any consequences, any costs? Even if they do, are they likely to feel them at all or will their supporters just open their check books and put them back out on the streets?
I know, we’re supposed to be the good guys, we’re supposed to be on the side of the angels, we’re supposed to be the adults, we’re supposed to do things the right way. Still, a part of me would like to see how many times bastards like this could rebuild their churches and refill their pulpits before they either just packed it in or ran out of brave fools.
I think I’ll print this out and hand it to any of my relatives who tries to get me to go to church.
I think anyone who has been paying attention to the papacy of Benedict XVI would not find the minister’s excommunication surprising. This Pope does not deal with modernity as well as his predecessor. At some point someone needs to hold a mirror up to these people and let them see how visceral their anger concerning a young woman’s extraordinarily difficult circumstances that resulted from someone else’s criminal act is. Sadly, I think the only way that can be done is from calm in the face of their irrationality, which requires a large amount of patience and compassion for those who cannot empathize–not the easiest human response.
Sweet cripes almighty…
And to think, I just finished watching George Carlin’s skit on anti-abortionists and how they were not pro-life but Anti-woman.
This more than proves that.
This girl needs some serious help, stat.
Everyone involved in tormenting this girl should die painfully.
I’m glad this poor kid finally got help, but holy FSM what a nightmare! The EU needs to kick Poland out. They are not fulfilling their human rights obligations.
Oh, this story is even more horrifying. When they left the hospital in Lublin, “pro-lifers” followed and crowded them, mother called police and they were taken to police station, where Agata’s mother made a notification with “good friar” present when they were giving testimony! The girl was actually placed in juvenile detention center with no right to leave or see her family. She was taken to the hospital when severe pain in her stomach started. The girl didn’t want to speak to media but when pro-lifers started spouting lies that the rape was consensual, she was forced to give an interview.
federa.org.pl has a series of publications in English about this story.
When I first heard about Agata, I thought religious fundamentalism reached the bottom. But now there’s an 11 years old rape victim in Romania and, apparently, a lower place than the bottom.
Have these people honestly nothing better to do than harassing and persecuting this poor young girl (who has been through a terrible ordeal already), following her around the country and stopping her accessing the medical care she desperately needs. If they stopped to think about what they were doing for a moment, wouldn’t they realise that any ideology that requires them to behave like this is one that needs to be re-examined? They seem entirely devoid of any normal human empathy.
The link under the line “She might be excommunicated” makes semi-clear that the health minister has already been de facto excommunicated:
There are only a few actions that merit latae sententiae excommunication. Getting an abortion is one, but only if you’re over eighteen. Helping someone to obtain an abortion is another: if you’re a bus driver, and know that one of your passengers is on her way to get an abortion, you’re automatically excommunicated if you don’t stop the bus and either order her off or refuse to drive any farther.
You can also be latae sententiae excommunicated for breaking the seal of the confessional, heresiarchy (leading an heretical movement), or attempting to assassinate the Pope. You can’t be latae sententiae excommunicated for machine-gunning a playground full of kindergartners or ordering the deaths of six million Jews and six million Gentiles.
My god, is it not a crime there to threaten doctors and interfere with other people’s medical care? These people are stalking a young girl. They should get charged with trespassing, stalking, and threatening. Pro-forcers just get more sickening every day.
aarrrgh, this is so infuriating and frightening to the point where I want to do physical violence to these people. Being the rational ones gets tiring when the world seems insane.
Just….um…wow. That’s pretty much the most horrible thing I’ve heard in a good long while. I’m glad the Health Minister finally stepped in, gives me hope, that even in a deeply religious community there are people who will do the right thing…
This is a sickening story– and the lies about this case being spread by the pro-lifers are incredibly obnoxious. However, from the digging around I’ve done, it appears that she was, in fact, able to have an abortion…but that’s only from the pro-lies set, so who knows the true story?
Poland, just like Lithuania, are run by Catholic church. In Lithuania abortions are about to be banned. In Poland sometimes there are police raids on gynaecologists’s clinics, looking for equipment to perform abortions. The same clique that harassed the girl are advocating to ban abortions altogether – no exceptions at all, be it a dying pregnant woman or a raped child.
this story is disgusting. whats strikes me though is all the focus and vitriol is focused on the victim but not the criminal why didnt the protesters go after him? so the victims mother is recieveing criminal proceedings, amazing how they don’t mention if the rapist will face any. so he’s allowed to walk away and leave her to deal wit the consequences. honestly-some people need to get their priorities straight. look, i must admit i am a deeply religious person (albeit not christian) and i just want to say not all religious people believe you should force a child who has already gone through mental and phyical trauma as the result if rape to be forced to give birth. my thoughts and prayers are with that girl.
Yes, she had an abortion. And we have “pro-lifers” to thank – if it wasn’t for the uproar they caused, the girl would be one more Polish girl/woman who didn’t get her right to abortion.
EU human rights court already ordered Poland to pay 39 thousand euro for Alicja Tysiac, who went almost blind after giving birth.
A 24 year old woman died in a hospital because no one examined her – doctors were afraid to harm the precious baybeee.
I had the same thought, Sara. If it weren’t for the rapist, the poor girl wouldn’t be in this situation in the first place. But instead of going after him, the “pro-lifers” stalked, harassed and tormented the victim.
No, he won’t. Because he is 17 and because the girl knows him (read: it’s her fault).
I think the feminist organization leader who helped the girl and her mom is facing charges too.
I wish I hadn’t just had breakfast before I read this. Now I’m nauseated. That poor girl.
The Catholic Church has some seriously screwed-up priorities.
Oh god. How fucking awful for that girl and her family. Thank goodness her family was supportive – but at what terrible costs for all of them.
More reasons to be disgusted and enraged at the institution I was baptized into.
I think you’re forgetting where these people are coming from. These aren’t a couple of assholes who read something on the internet and got mad. They aren’t even people whose church group handed out signs and rented a bus to protest a clinic down the road. No, these are people who have devoted their lives to ending abortion by any means necessary.
They believe that, by preventing this girl from having an abortion, they are saving the life of a child. They believe that doing so will help shore up a system which will save tens of thousands of more children. They believe that this little girl wasn’t raped but that she is a whore. They believe that they are fighting to uphold god’s own will in at least three ways: his will that this child be born, his will that sex exist for procreation, his will that things unfold the way he planed. They have stopped to think about what they’re doing, they discuss it, study it, plan it, pray about it. They have decided that what they’re doing is so important that any transgression is acceptable in order to bring their plans to fruition. The math they look at is simple: if 10,000 women die or suffer as a result of their actions thats OK because god willed it and suffering builds character. If they can save 100,000 potential babies then all the better.
At the end of the day conflicts with people like this always end in death, its just a matter of whether its an innocent they terrorize or them.
I’m so glad to hear that my ancestarel Poland is keeping up its fine tradition of religious bigotry, indeed bigotry in general. It needs to get its act together and do less “moralising” and more actually helping people in need.
Wouldn’t want to be a black Jewish homosexual over there.
Religion is so contradictory. Who the hell do they think they are not allowing this girl to exercise her free will. If it is, indeed, a sin- let her & the doctors answer to God. Those radical pro-lifers are friggin’ nuts.
Personally if it was me- I’d say “abortion is wrong, life is full of unexpected twists & turns, an unwanted pregnancy from an alleged rape CAN end up being a good thing- if you’re open to the possibility of becoming a mom earlier than planned and willing to embrace a child who is innocent.”
However- this girl did NOT feel that way, made her decision, had the love & support of her family and the law. How can any of those nuts justify torturing her that way?
If she ends up with long term mental issues from this (as those PLers claim) it will be because of the actions of the activists and not because she stood her ground.
[...] had to react to this story. Shit runs so very [...]
[...] « new york, new york pro-lifers = pro-forcers?… June 25, 2008 more child-rape victimes for anti-choicers to torment But that’s the “pro-life” movement for you: People who have no moral qualms about forcing a [...]
This is very sad.
I really like this… it describes how I feel about pro-lifers…
WTF?
These people are evil.
I’d bet a whole lot of money that once the cute baby stage was over, they wouldn’t give a rat’s ass about how a 14-year-old child managed motherhood, or how that baby fares for the next several decades.
It’s like when you see those signs on the New York City subways advertising “FREE ABORTION ALTERNATIVES.” Really? To me, for the “alternative” to abortion to be free would require free childcare, free food, free diapers, free clothing for at least 18 years…
[...] had to react to this story. Shit runs so very [...]
[...] bother to work for us, a 14-year-old having a perfectly legal abortion after being raped – excommunicated and her mother on the way to prison but being stripped of all legal rights, deported and brutally murdered in a concentration camp – [...]