The European Parliament held a joint committee hearing on Poland’s pro-life laws and policies prompted by the recent ban on abortion for unborn children with a disability; abortion exceptions in cases of rape, incest or when the health of a pregnant woman is at risk remain legal.

The hearing by the Committee for Women's Rights and Gender Equality (FEMM) and the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) was titled "Attacks on abortion rights and breaches of the Rule of Law in Poland". In her remarks, the European Union’s (EU) Commissioner for Equality, Helena Dalli from Malta, recognized that the EU cannot dictate abortion policy for member states but she still advanced a biased pro-abortion position.

Dalli stated, "As you are well aware, the EU has no competence on abortion rights within a member state and thus, abortion legislation is up to the member states concerned. However, when making use of the competences, member states must respect fundamental rights which bind them by virtue of the constitutions and commitments under international law. 

“It is also worth noting that both the Council of Europe human rights commissioner, and a group of UN human rights special mechanisms, have expressed the opinion that this substantial restriction to legal access to abortion goes against Poland's international human rights obligations." 

There is no international right to abortion and no international obligation to legalize abortion despite this false pro-abortion claim. In his response, Poland’s Representative to the EU Andrzej Marek Sados defended Poland’s decision saying it “was the ‘exclusive responsibility’ of a state to regulate what constitutes a legal termination.” 

He said: "In the Polish legal system, courts and tribunals are an authority that is separate and independent from other authorities. Nonetheless, I would like to point out that in accordance with the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, health policy remains a competence of the member states. 

The Commission of the Bishops' Conferences of the European Union (COMECE) weighed in sending a letter to the President of the European Parliament David Sassoli in which they reminded him that neither “European Union legislation nor the European Convention on Human Rights provide for a right to abortion, leaving the matter consequently to the legal systems of the Member states”. They stressed that the Catholic Church seeks to support women in life situations arising from difficult or unwanted pregnancies and calls for the protection and care of all unborn life.

The letter signed by COMECE president Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich and four other Bishops included, “Every human person is called into being by God and needs protection, particularly when he or she is most vulnerable. A special safeguard and care for the child, before and after birth is also expressed in international legal standards, for example in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.”

The Bishops also expressed their opposition to the November 2020 EP resolution calling for EU institutions to do more to support "sexual and reproductive health rights," including abortion, across member states and highlighted that within the European Union legislation and laws on abortion are left to the legal systems of the Member states.

The parliamentarians heard from Marta Lempart, a leader of the pro-abortion Polish Women's Strike, who urged the EU to act and to sanction the Polish government stating: 

"Your duty, first, is to me. To fight for me, the European. To stand for my rights, me, the European. To put me first – me, the European. To act. To bring Polish government to court. To sanction them. To impose all the means that need political will, obviously still lacking. Still not enough. Still not brave enough. 

"We, the people, urge you to fight for us, the European citizens, as freedom fighters in Poland, do every day, putting ourselves on the line for the core values that the European Union was built upon. 

"The fight is on and out there." 

Also appearing before the joint committee was Neil Datta, Secretary of the European Parliamentary Forum for Sexual and Reproductive Rights which works with lawmakers throughout Europe seeking to advance the broad radical agenda that includes abortion on demand. Datta’s remarks included, “What we are seeing in Poland is just the beginning. The beginning of the erosion of fundamental rights through pseudo-legal processes; first targeting women, then sexual minorities. Soon everybody will be concerned.” 

He described Poland’s laws and policies protecting children in the womb from abortion as “a test bed for reactionary ideas to be exported to other countries.”