Abortions on demand?

Poland has announced that it will appeal against the European Court of Human Rights' decision that it must compensate a Polish citizen whose sight was severely damaged after being denied the right to an abortion. In its March ruling, the Strasbourg court ordered Poland to pay a total of E39,000 (zł.147,637) as compensation and to cover legal expenses.

"If we didn't appeal, we would have to ease the anti-abortion laws in Poland and this wouldn't be good," Prime Minister Jarosław Kaczyński said at a news conference. Catholic ultra-nationalist Deputy Prime Minister Roman Giertych expressed his satisfaction about the decision to appeal. At the time of the ruling, Giertych claimed that the decision would lead to "abortion on demand" in Poland.

The government has been pushing for a total ban on abortion. Poland already has one of the strictest abortion laws in the European Union. The law allows termination of a pregnancy only when it threatens the life or health of the mother, when the baby is likely to be permanently handicapped or when conception was the result of rape.

The EU human rights court ruled that Alicja Tysiàc was denied her human rights by Poland's anti-abortion laws. Tysiàc's eyesight deteriorated after her third child was born and she is now registered as disabled. When she became pregnant in 2000, three doctors told her that she could go blind if she gave birth to the child, but none would give her a certificate to authorize an abortion. (Reuters)