If professors Andrzej Rzepliński and Andrzej Zoll, who are opponents of the present Constitutional Tribunal, say that the verdict of the Constitutional Tribunal in the case of the abortion is legal, I accept it; I have always said that people who are diagnosed with a disability before birth have the right to be born – says Jan Filip Libicki, Senator of Polish People’s Party.
Libicki stressed that he has doubts about the verdict of the Constitutional Tribunal in the sense that he knows that there are understudies (judges) in the composition of the Tribunal.
‘I know that there are doubts as to whether President of the Constitutional Court Julia Przyłębska was appointed correctly. There is a legal problem of defects in the appointment of members of this Court,’ pointed out the Senator.
But, he added, ‘both Prof. Andrzej Rzepliński and Prof. Andrzej Zoll, who are opponents and critics of this Tribunal, say that regardless of those judges and regardless of the way Ms Przyłębska was appointed, the decision from 22nd October is valid and legal’.
‘If it is a legal decision, then I accept that decision and I am happy with it. Because I’ve always said that people who are pre-birth disabled have a right to be born. This has always been my position and I maintain it,’ Libicki declared.
When asked how he assesses the stance of Polish People’s Party’s Leader Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz on this issue and his submission of a bill, which restores three grounds giving the possibility of abortion in Poland, the Senator replied that in the Polish People’s Party (PSL) there has always been the freedom to vote on world-view issues.
‘I understand that my colleagues have a different view, that they want to restore the legal state before this decision of the Constitutional Tribunal. On the other hand, I left the Civic Platform because I felt that I would not have the freedom to vote there, in accordance with my convictions in world-view issues, including abortion,’ Libicki stressed.
When asked how he views the PSL’s idea of holding a nationwide referendum on abortion, Libicki replied that he is against the very idea of a referendum.
‘Because I believe that you can’t have a referendum on certain basic, fundamental issues, you can’t have a referendum on ethical issues,’ stressed the Senator.
According to him, ‘the responsibility for a particular state of the law should be taken by the MPs and the MPs should have voted it down’.
‘There was no need to do it through the Constitutional Court,’ Libicki assessed. ‘I am against the idea of a referendum,’ he stated.