‘How could this be any worse?’, you may think. Well, they received a record number for the anti-abortion competition from children and teens.
The ‘pro-life’ colouring competition was inspired by the thousands of citizens who took to the streets of Poland to protest more freedom with abortion rights.
It isn’t news that Poland and its neighbouring countries are conservative and hold ‘pro-life’ beliefs – especially because Poland is one of the most heavily religious countries in Europe.
Currently, 87 per cent of Poland’s population following the Roman-Catholic faith.
However, like many other countries, the support for the church is dwindling within the younger generation.
According to a recent survey, only nine per cent of the 18-30 age bracket interpret the church positively.
As a response, numerous institutions are moving forward by taking steps to keep Poland’s Catholic reputation alive and well.
A colouring competition brainwashing children is obviously the most logical method to instil Catholic ideals promoting ‘pro-life,’ and the heteronormative nuclear family ideals.
The director of education for the Polish Association of Defenders of Human Life (how ironic), Magdalena Guziak-Nowak runs the evil and toxic competition. She told SBS Dateline:
“We want from the very beginning to raise children’s awareness about the value of human life and show how valuable family is,”
“This is the idea behind this anti-abortion competition. These competitions show the beauty of life.”
To add to the complete toxicity of this at-home arts competition is that literal three-year-olds are eligible to enter, as well as teenagers.
If that was not scary and awful enough, the external anti-abortion organisation who runs this have bartered with Poland’s youth by offering students extra credit towards their school certificate just for entering.
The totalitarian at-home arts competition is open to children as young as three, through to teenagers. Though it’s run by an external anti-abortion organisation, students earn extra credits towards their school certificate for entering.
Perhaps it should read – a record number of anti abortion parents have entered Poland’s anti abortion colouring competition posing children as young as 3
— Sean (@seanyn67) July 27, 2021
“The most important thing for a child or a teenager is not to know what abortion is but to build a foundation… how beautiful family life is, and this is the basis on which we can build the rest.”
Yeah, nah.
The most important thing for a child and a teenager to know is they have the right to control their bodies and make their own decisions. Not their horrifying government.
As recently as October last year, the constitutional tribunal of Poland ruled it is in defiance of the constitution to abort a pregnancy in cases of foetal abnormality.
Prior to this, foetal abnormalities were one of the few legal reasons to be permitted an abortion in Poland.
In current law, the only exceptions in Poland’s abortion legislation are rape, incest and if the mother’s life is in danger.
While these reasons are more than valid to enact an abortion procedure, it doesn’t justify stripping someone’s right to their body with limited exceptions.
Protests against the anti-abortion act in Poland. Poland has one of the most restrictive anti-abortion laws in the world. We should all support Polish women!#StrajkKobiet #PiekloKobiet pic.twitter.com/QQKTAN1Hhn
— Robi (@EnduringRob) January 28, 2021
This ruling enraged Polish people to take over the streets in protest against this near-total ban on abortion, subsequently pushing the controversial issue to the top tier of Poland’s political agenda.
Polish children and teenagers were not censored from the havoc and unrest of this policy.
“This year there were more works about abortions than in the previous years. This is clearly caused by the legal changes which impacted society,” Ms Guziak-Nowak said.
Anti-abortion groups responded by paying to raise thousands of billboards depicting a foetus in a heart on highways throughout the country.
Many of the artworks submitted by children this year for the competition depicted a similar motif.
“I think it is just because what we saw in the Polish streets was the truth,” Ms Guziak-Nowak said.
“There is a child in a mother’s uterus, not just a piece of mysterious assembly of cells, or jelly, or whatever we can call it. I think that this campaign definitely had an educational effect.”
Fortunately, one of the small percentages of Polish doctors, gynaecologist Dr Maciej Jedrzejko has vocalised the changes needed for the abortion legislation by saying:
“the government should never go between a doctor and parents,” in cases of embryo pathological pregnancies.
“This is absolutely unpolitical problem, this is a medical problem,” he told SBS Dateline.
“If parents don’t want to wait until their foetus will be very big grown and they don’t want to watch his dying or they don’t want to watch his suffering, they should have a right to decide. Because a woman can not be a coffin for a baby.”
While Dr Jedrzejko offers a valid point, the fact still remains: people should have total control and rights over their body, including whatever reason someone has to abort a foetus.
It’s no one’s damn business.
