WORLD : Polish Bishops in Abortion Fight

Poland’s Roman Catholic bishops today threw their weight behind a campaign to scrap the country’s liberal abortion law, saying it has caused “mass depravity” among Poles.

A statement by the bishops published today said the 1956 law, which provides for free abortion up to 12 weeks after conception, is an “ally of evil” because it infringes on the right to life held by every human being from the moment of conception.

The law, passed by the former communist regime, made abortion a norm of behavior and “became a reason for mass depravity of the human conscience,” the bishops charged.