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Abortion row professor dismissed

PR dla Zagranicy
Nick Hodge 22.07.2014 08:47
A hospital director who refused to carry out an abortion under a 'conscience clause' was officially dismissed on Monday in keeping with an earlier announcement by the mayor of Warsaw.

Professor
Professor Bodgan Chazan speaks with journalists on Monday afternoon. Photo: PAP/Jakub Kaminski

“As I see it, my outlook on life stands in the way of my carrying out the duties of a director of a hospital, and surely of a range of other activities,” Professor Chazan told journalists after a meeting with the deputy mayor of Warsaw, Jacek Wojciechowicz.

The professor, whose case has proved highly divisive in Poland, had declined to help a woman whose IVF pregnancy resulted in a damaged foetus.

The child was ultimately born deformed on 30 June, and it died in hospital within a fortnight.

Chazan had cited the 'conscience clause' in Polish law, which techinically allows Catholic medics to refuse an abortion.

However, he failed to fulfil the legal condition of referring the patient to another clinic before the the first 25 weeks of her pregnancy had run their course.

Professor Chazan's meeting with deputy mayor Wojciechowicz was a calm affair, according to the latter.

“Both sides said what they wanted to say, and neither was able to convince the other,” Wojciechowicz said.

“This is not about his outlook on life, it is about compliance with the law.

“The law applies to all,” he stressed.

Poland's laws permit an abortion if a woman's life or health is jeopardised by the continuation of a pregnancy, if the pregnancy is a result of a criminal act such as rape, or if the foetus is seriously malformed. However, the abortion must be carried out in the first 25 weeks of the pregnancy.

The mother of the late child claims that Professor Chazan dragged his heels so that she would not be able to carry out the abortion elsewhere within 25 weeks of the conception.(nh)

Source: PAP

tags: abortion
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