It has been a good summer for pro-family forces in Europe.
First, on July 12, Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s attempt to decriminalize abortion during the first three months of pregnancy failed after almost the entire caucus of the Polish People’s Party, the most conservative faction of his shaky coalition government, voted against it. Since his ascension to power last year, Tusk has been using the full force of the state to target conservatives in the media and the judiciary as well as his political opponents. He had promised to reverse the policies of the previous government, Law and Justice, by spearheading a rollback of Poland’s pro-life regime.
Thus far, he has failed. Abortion activists, who see Tusk’s shaky coalition as a golden opportunity to ramrod their agenda through, are livid. Thousands of protestors gathered, with activists screaming profane chants from a stage in front of parliament. Tusk had made his socially liberal agenda central to his bid for leadership, stating on X on July 10 that: “We will vote to decriminalize abortion. We will vote for civil partnerships as a government project, although not everyone was convinced. We’re done discussing, it’s time for decisions.” After the failed vote, a furious and shaken Tusk suspended two of his own MPs who had voted against decriminalization and dismissed another from the post of deputy minister.
Tusk will try again, of course. But he faces an uphill battle, because he cannot govern without conservatives in the coalition – and they are not eager to anger Poland’s pro-life majority. Abortion activists are urging Tusk to dismiss Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz of the Polish People’s Party from the position of deputy prime minister – but Kosiniak-Kamysz pointed out that in all of the polls, pushing an abortion agenda and LGBT rights ranked rock bottom as a voter priorities.
Then, on July 23, Italy’s constitutional court formally refused to recognize the so-called “non-binary” sexual identity, stating in a ruling that Italian law:
establishes the principle of correspondence between name and sex and that, therefore, only a legislative intervention could overcome or change this rule. Its clarification is based on the fact that the binary nature of human sexuality of man and woman characterizes the varied and most disparate realms of social life, governed by the legal system, such as family law, labor law, sport, and the civil state and that, therefore, the legal recognition of an alleged third non-binary gender would disrupt the entire Italian legal and social system in such a way as to be incompatible with the faculties and attributions of the Constitutional Court or of any judge.
In short, to create a “third gender” or recognize “non-binary” as a valid legal concept would transform the entire social and legal system of Italy. Again, LGBT activists saw the ruling as a significant setback, especially due to the fact that it contributes to a growing consensus in Europe that the transgender agenda in particular should be rejected.
On July 29, the high court of the United Kingdom dealt a devastating blow to transgender activists when they ruled that the emergency ban on puberty blockers implemented by the Tory government on May 29 in the wake of the Cass Review revealing the damage they cause to minors. As Mrs. Justice Lang wrote:
In my view, it was rational for the first defendant to decide that it was essential to adopt the emergency procedure to avoid serious danger to the health of children and young people who would otherwise be prescribed puberty blockers during that five- to six-month period. Under the emergency procedure, there is no requirement to hold a consultation procedure… In my judgment, the Cass review’s findings about the very substantial risks and very narrow benefits associated with the use of puberty blockers, and the recommendation that in future the NHS prescribing of puberty blockers to children and young people should only take place in a clinical trial, and not routinely, amounted to powerful scientific evidence in support of restrictions on the supply of puberty blockers on the grounds that they were potentially harmful.
Add to that Bulgaria’s vote to ban LGBT propaganda in schools – which I covered earlier – and it is clear that defeat is not a given, as LGBT activists and abortion advocates would like us to believe. These victories are extremely important, and the defeats they represent are perhaps even more so.
