Lawmakers in European Parliament condemn Poland's near-total ban on abortion

"What we are doing is playing with the lives of women."  European Parliament lawmakers lashed out at Poland's near-total ban on abortion.

Transcript

00:00I come from a country where thousands of women lost their lives during communist

00:04years because they had no choice. I am the granddaughter of a woman who

00:09suffered tremendously because she had no choice. I was born and raised in this

00:15country but then this country grew so that I can become a free woman. If Mr.

00:21Kaczynski or his league had ever had an abortion then they would know that this

00:24is not an easy choice. It is one of the hardest choices one can make in search

00:31of a safe and dignified life.

00:35Every woman has a right to such a life, to such choices, to decide upon her

00:57future. Every leader or entity who does not understand that does not belong to

01:03this century, to the European Union and to our community of values. I stand with

01:16you women of Poland and yes I am too the granddaughter of one of those witches

01:24that they did not burn.

01:33With the prohibition of abortion we are not managing to end this practice. What we are

02:00doing is to play with the lives of women. Because those women who have the need to

02:07go and interrupt their pregnancy will do it. Do not have any doubt that they will do it

02:13at the risk of their own lives. They will do it without sanitary conditions, they will

02:19do it in other places outside Poland, but they will do it. And therefore we need to

02:26talk about these issues here in the European Parliament about how to avoid clandestine abortions

02:32that cause the death of thousands and thousands of women. There are those who have pretended

02:36that we will not celebrate this debate, that the Parliament will not talk about the rights

02:40of women in Poland. And I will say it very clearly, we will talk one, we will talk five,

02:45we will talk as many times as necessary, because they are not the women in Poland, we are all.

02:51And I will repeat the same message that I made less than a month ago. You are not alone.

02:56We are going to defend all women in Europe. Thank you very much.