of this bill by the current Polish Sejm is scheduled for April 15-16. This very document met countrywide opposition less than half a year ago: opposition violent enough to cause a spontaneous public protest not only in front of the Sejm building, but also in several Polish towns and cities. Just like back in October, this time – depending on the upcoming reading and voting of the bill – the “Stop Paedophilia” bill might get accepted, rejected or moved to be further processed by a parliamentary commission.

As a reminder – the “Stop Paedophilia” bill assumes a change in the provision of Article 200b in the Polish Penal Code. According to the amendment, “praise or promotion of sexual intercourse between minors” shall be punished with imprisonment for two to three years (based on the circumstances). A more thorough statement on this act was published six months ago [1]; nothing about it has changed, since the project remained unchanged as well.

The projects, which presents itself as a means of protecting the youth from “depravity”, is nothing but a way of harming both the youth and those who provide them with knowledge and support. According to the bill, any educator, teacher, tutor, midwife or even a doctor could be imprisoned for talking to young people about birth control and safer sex or prescribing contraceptives to anyone under the age of 18!

“Stop Paedophilia” is a shameless, deceitful attack on the basic rights of young people living in Poland. If it is passed, young people will be effectively deprived of comprehensive gynecologic care and lose an important means of gaining knowledge about their own sexuality, their own bodies and their own health! Such a law would also inevitably lead to a dramatic surge in cases of sexually transmitted diseases and infections, as well as it would deny any help to those who – many a time unbeknownst to them – are victims of sexual abuse.

It is time to stop treating the youth as second-class citizens! Young Poles are coping with the lowest self-esteem compared to their European peers [2], they have frequent suicidal thoughts [3] and the worst access to contraceptives in Europe [3], while the psychiatric care of underage persons in Poland can be called nothing short of a cruel joke. To top it all, although they deeply care about it, as they get older, it gets harder for them to communicate with their closest relatives about these issues [5], which leaves many of young people alone, without any support whatsoever.

Dear Members of Parliament! The future of the “Stop Paedophilia” bill, as well as the future of every young person in Poland, is in your hands! Rejecting this bill is not only a matter of basic human decency, but also of basic human rights of hundreds of thousands of young people in Poland – the right to receive education and decide about one’s own life. Thus, we are strongly objecting to this bill being accepted or moved to further proceedings. The same opinion is shared by the Polish Sexological Society [6]. The only solution that ensures our youth’s safety is rejecting the “Stop Paedophilia” bill, followed by guaranteeing access to comprehensive sex education in all the schools in the country, which has a social backing of about 80% Poles [7].

We are appealing to the politicians – stop making more problems for the youth and start listening to what they say! And they say what we could hear in October in front of the Sejm during one of our group members’ speech – we are with Ponton. Reject this ridiculous bill and focus on things that are really important for young people, such as child psychiatry, education and domestic violence prevention.

[1] Position of the Ponton Group on the “Stop Paedophilia” project, 2019, 

http://ponton.org.pl/en/statements/position-of-the-ponton-group-on-the-stop-paedophilia-project/

[2] Zdrowie i zachowania zdrowotne młodzieży szkolnej w Polsce – wyniki badań HBSC, Instytut Matkii Dziecka, 2014, 

http://www.imid.med.pl/images/do-pobrania/Zdrowie_i_zachowania_zdrowotne_www.pdf

[3] Przemoc, próby samobójcze, okaleczenia – alarmujące wyniki najnowszego badania Fundacji Dajemy Dzieciom Siłę, 13.12.2018, 

https://fdds.pl/przemoc-proby-samobojcze-samookaleczenia-alarmujace-wyniki-najnowszego-badania-fundacji-dajemy-dzieciom-sile/

[4] Contraception Atlas 2019, 

https://www.contraceptioninfo.eu/sites/contraceptioninfo.eu/files/map_cci-english_english_v9-web.pdf

[5] Dzieci się liczą 2017. Raport o zagrożeniach bezpieczeństwa i rozwoju dzieci w Polsce, Fundacja Dajemy Dzieciom Siłę, 

https://fdds.pl/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Raport-Dzieci-si%C4%99-licz%C4%85-2017.pdf?fbclid=IwAR1bMHMCSFhOLNOtwt2FmoZCaO9XuSDc4d5wqkGK_lnfKTSt7lPdAV3Pf8k

[6] Stanowisko Polskiego Towarzystwa Seksuologicznego w sprawie projektu ustawy o zmianie ustawy z dnia 6 czerwca 1997r. Kodeks Karny (zawartej w druku sejmowym nr 3751) penalizującej działania z zakresu edukacji seksualnej, 2019, 

http://pts-seksuologia.pl/sites/strona/114/stanowisko-polskiego-towarzystwa-seksuologicznego-w-sprawie-projektu-ustawy-o-zmianie-ustawy-z-dnia-6-czerwca-1997r-kodeks-karny-zawartej-w-druku-sejmowym-nr-3751-penalizujacej-dzialania-z-zakresu-edukacji-seksualnej

[7] IBRIS, October 2019.

Artykuł Ponton Group’s Position on the “Stop Paedophilia” Bill 2020 pochodzi z serwisu Ponton Group.

According to the draft amendment to Art. 200b of the Penal Code, the provision is to be extended by three paragraphs. In addition to the concept of ‘paedophile behaviour’, provisions are added to cover ‘praise or promotion of sexual intercourse between minors’. Particular attention should be paid to the proposed Article 200b(4), which is worded as follows: Whoever promotes or condones engaging in sexual intercourse or any other sexual activity by a minor, while acting in connection with holding a position, exercising a profession or activity related to education, treatment or care of minors, or acting on the premises of a school or other institution or educational and care facility,  shall be subject to the penalty of deprivation of liberty for up to 3 years [1].

The proposed amendment, and in particular the accompanying lobbying campaign, clearly indicate the intentions of the project implementers. The aim is both to prevent young people from exercising their right to reliable education, and to intimidate those involved in sex education and the provision of health care to people under the age of 18. As the Ponton Group, we are in constant contact with young people – they tell us about their problems, concerns, needs, and we listen to and support them. We can assure that the proposed amendment to the Penal Code will be detrimental to the youngest Polish women and men, depriving them of access to reliable education (sexual education), health care (gynaecological consultations, access to contraception or “after” pills) and the usual human support in the issues of sexuality, adolescence, growth, building healthy relationships.

We would like to stress that access to reliable education is one of the fundamental human rights which, however, may soon be seriously violated in Poland. Even more, Polish legislation also includes provisions to ensure that young people have access to knowledge about their sexuality! Article 4 of the Act of 7 January 1993 on Family Planning, Protection of the Human Fetus and the Conditions for Permissibility of Termination of Pregnancy stipulates that school curricula shall include knowledge about human sexual life, the principles of conscious and responsible parenthood, the value of family, life in the prenatal phase and methods and means of conscious procreation. In practice, it will be impossible to implement this provision without being subjected to accusations of “propagating” and “praising” manifestations of sexuality of young people.

The amendment is also absurd because the age of consent from which sexual activity can be legally carried out is 15 years in Poland. The project, while referring to “minors”, takes into account the fact that it is possible to engage in sexual activity with people from the age of 15, but at the same time they must not be informed about their sexuality! Thus, the authors condemn young people to dangers resulting from ignorance – unwanted pregnancies, infections, sexual violence.

We do not agree with this ruthless attack on the fundamental freedoms of young people in Poland. Its implementation will pose a threat to the physical and mental health of young people. This ruthless project should never have reached the reading stage during the sessions of the Parliament and was already given a negative opinion by many organizations, including the Polish Sexual Society. [2].

We will not allow ourselves to be intimidated and we will continue our work, especially as as up to 84% of Polish women and men see the need to provide young people with knowledge about sexuality in schools. [3]. We therefore call for the immediate rejection of this draft law, which will affect the well-being of young people throughout the country.

Translation: Katarzyna Sęk

Artykuł Position of the Ponton Group on the “Stop Paedophilia” project pochodzi z serwisu Ponton Group.

The project involves a change in pharmaceutical law, which will cause all

contraceptives shall be issued with a prescription. Consequently the only emergency contraception available to people over the age of 15 will again be on prescription. What does it mean?

On Saturday night during intercourse the condom broke. I panicked, together with my boyfriend we decided to buy an “after” pill . I just started college and I cannot imagine that I could be pregnant (adrena, 08/08/2016)

Now, a young person who will need emergency contraception, will not be able to just go to the pharmacy and buy pills – one will have to first go to a doctor, thus losing valuable time, during which she could have take the pill to protect herself against unwanted pregnancy!

On September 26 we celebrated the World Day of contraception, while in Poland, a last measure chemical contraception had been withdrawn and the government seeks to limit the availability of emergency contraception. For us this is an alarming situation, because easy access to contraception is one of the basic reproductive rights.

Polish law states that sex with a person over 15 years old is allowed, but the same person cannot independently come to the gynecologist to do examinations and get a prescription for contraception, because this requires the consent of a guardian, and yet in many homes a sexuality topic is still a taboo.

For many young people access to hormonal contraception becomes almost impossible. The planned revision of the rules will greatly reduce the possibility of preventing unwanted pregnancy in case of unprotected intercourse (including rape!) Or when used method of contraception had failed (eg. The condom broke). The most disadvantaged will be the youngest and the poorest people who will not be able to afford a private road visit to the gynecologist, and then buy an expensive pill.

I should add that doctors often refuse prescriptions for emergency contraception measures invoking the conscience clause. Therefore the introduction of prescriptions for emergency contraception is a huge problem.

The World Health Organization reports that emergency contraception is safe and does not adversely affect fertility. It is not recommended as a regular method of contraception, but as a method used in exceptional situations. There are no medical reasons to restrict access to ellaOne only to sell prescription! The way of taking the pill together with warning about possible side effects are sufficiently clear for women and girls over 15 years old.

However, The Minister of Health Konstanty Radziwiłł claims, that “these types of products are simply dangerous” and that “we have to deal with situations where there are girls who take such measures several times in a month.” Given that the price per pack ellaOne is about 150 PLN, it is a surprising statement. It is a pity that the Minister did not give the sources from which acquired such information.

In a situation where the Minister is concerned about the excessive taking of the emergency contraception by teenagers, maybe he should consider increasing the knowledge of young people and access to modern means of preventing pregnancy for regular use. Young people have gaps in basic knowledge about sexuality and often do not know how to protect themselves against unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections. “Ponton” Group regularly receives questions on the helpline on whether the given sexual behaviour was risky, and whether to take emergency contraception. Young people want and need sexual education in schools!

Today, September 28, we celebrate the Day of Action for safe and legal abortion. A way to reduce the number of abortions is first and foremost to provide the youth solid knowledge about sexuality and ensure there is universal access to modern contraception, including emergency contraception!

“Ponton” Sex Educators Group calls for keeping ellaOne as an emergency contraception available without a prescription.

Artykuł Ponton’s position on the restriction of the availability of emergency contraception ellaOne pochodzi z serwisu Ponton Group.