14.2.2017
When we dance, when we talk about love and make love, dubious things happen in the Polish parliament.
The Polish government adopted a draft concerning emergency contraception and treatment of life-threatening situations. Hormonal contraceptives now can be sold only on prescription.
This project was not announced on the agenda of the Council of Ministers. Deputy Prime Minister and Culture Minister Piotr Glinski, informed about the adoption of the draft amendment to the Act on healthcare services at the conference after the session.
The draft aims to allow access to non-standard therapy in cases of health and life like financing of drug therapy and chemotherapy. The project aims also to solve problems of lack of funding for medicines necessary to save the life or health of the patient, that are not available in Poland (coming from abroad). The Ministry of Health repeatedly claimed the introduction of methods that will enable individual treatment of patients in very particular health situations.
So far, so good. However, there is a tricky point.
The draft, accepted by the government on the Valentine’s Day, also provides that hormonal contraceptives for internal use can be sold only on prescription. This means that emergency contraception pills, the so-called “day after” pills (like ellaOne) pills would also be sold on prescription. Since 2015, the “day after” pills were available without prescription for people over 15 years old. Not anymore.
In 2014, Urszula Dudziak, a professor at the theology department at the Catholic University of Lublin, and also expert appointed by the Polish government to advise it on family planning and sex education classes in schools, said: “People protecting themselves against unwanted pregnancy risk serious consequences such as hedonism, sex addiction, a sense of shame and a tendency to betray”. “Using contraception is wicked,” she said also, and brilliantly concluded: “That is why we need to educate about love”.
In short: emergency contraception pill inhibits or delays ovulation. It prevents pregnancy. It does nothing more. It does not kill babies.
The European Commission has authorized the release for sale of ellaOne without a prescription.
Welcome to the Middleages! But we will not put our umbrellas away!
