Nearsighted mother, nearsighted law

From Bloomberg-

March 20 (Bloomberg) -- A Polish mother who was denied an abortion after disagreement among doctors in the staunchly Catholic country over the risks of childbirth was awarded compensation by the European Court of Human Rights.

Alicja Tysiac, who is severely shortsighted, was granted 39,000 euros ($51,834), mainly payable by the Polish government. In 2000, she was told by a gynecologist she was able to give birth through caesarean section even after gaining a certificate saying the pregnancy would harm her health, court documents showed.

A danger to the life or health of the mother is one of three exceptions to a general ban on abortion in Poland, an issue at the center of a current political debate. The Polish Families' League, the junior partner in the governing coalition, wants to change the constitution to protect life from conception. Such an amendment would ensure future governments couldn't relax abortion laws.

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Tysiac, 36 this year, was in the early stages of her third pregnancy when she was told there was no need for an abortion. The child was born in November 2000.

She suffers from myopia, or nearsightedness, and her eyesight has since ``deteriorated considerably'' and she fears eventual blindness, according to the court.

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The court in Strasbourg, eastern France, said the legal prohibition on abortion in Poland together with the risk for doctors of incurring criminal responsibility ``can well have a chilling effect on doctors when deciding whether the requirements of legal abortion are met in an individual case.''

Abortion is also allowed in Poland when the pregnancy results from rape or if the fetus has an untreatable disease.

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The court awarded Tysiac 25,000 euros for the ``considerable anguish and suffering, including her fears about her physical capacity to take care of another child'' that she must have endured and 14,000 euros for legal fees and expenses.

Whatevery your opinion is on abortion, someone tell me how myopia can be the medical basis for terminating a pregnancy. Nearsightednes isn't life threatening to a mother or anyone else for a matter of fact.

There is this other news out of Poland.

WARSAW, Poland - Thousands of Poles took to Warsaw’s streets Wednesday to demand a complete ban on abortion, including in cases of rape or incest.

Two separate marches merged into a demonstration of 4,000 people in front of parliament, where lawmakers were debating amending the constitution to tighten Poland’s anti-abortion law, already among the most restrictive in the EU.

”I am for life,” said Miroslawa Kledzinska, 64. ”God gives life and only he has the right to take life away.”

Poland’s abortion law allows termination of a pregnancy until the 12th week if the mother’s life is in danger, the fetus is irreparably damaged or the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest.

President Lech Kaczynski has put forward one of three separate proposals to amend the constitution to prohibit abortion completely.

However, none has a chance of being adopted while the main opposition Civic Platform party remains opposed. A two-thirds majority is needed in the 460-member lower house to change the constitution.

Again, no matter what your views on abortion, there is an instance where a pregnancy must be terminated. An ectopic pregnancy, where a fertilized ovum is implanted in any tissue other than the uterine wall, is life threatening to a mother. Either drugs or surgery is needed to treat the mother and terminate the pregnancy. The life being carried by the mother with very rare exceptions will never be born.

Therefore a complete ban on terminating pregnancies is insane.(The mother's body in the case of ectopic pregnancies, aborts the baby on its own but medical care is required) There are legitimate medical reasons(a very very few) out there. Myopia just isn't one of them.

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