Polish anti-abortion group invokes Hitler to push

Poland already has one of the most restrictive abortion laws in the 27-nation European Union, but campaigners want it toughened.

WARSAW, March 4, 2010 (AFP) - A Polish anti-abortion group Thursday said it had adopted new shock tactics with a huge billboard showing Adolf Hitler alongside bloodied, hacked-up foetuses.

"In the fight against abortion, soft tactics no longer work. To oppose abortion, we don't have any choice," Mariusz Dzierzawski of the Pro association told the daily Gazeta Wyborcza.

Poland already has one of the most restrictive abortion laws in the 27-nation European Union, but campaigners want it toughened.

Alongside the face of the Nazi German dictator and the foetuses on the 200-metre (650-foot) poster were the words: "Abortion for Poles was brought in by Hitler on March 9, 1943".

That refers to rules by Poland's World War II occupiers allowing abortion for peoples they considered "subhuman", hand in hand with their programme of mass murder.

The Nazis meanwhile banned abortion for Germans as part of their drive to ensure the dominance of the "master race".

Poland adopted tough abortion rules in 1993, four years after the collapse of the communist bloc where the law was liberal.

With more than 90 percent of Poland's 38.5 million citizens declaring themselves to be Catholic, the Church has major clout.

A pregnancy can be terminated only if it results from rape or incest, poses a health risk to the mother or if the foetus is severely deformed. However, even in such conditions, hospitals are known to refuse abortions.

According to Polish women's rights groups, there are up to 180,000 illegal abortions in Poland each year. Official data show just 200 to 300 legal terminations.