June 26, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Last year international media was awash with headlines about the case of pregnant 14-year-old Polish girl, who had become the focal point of the debate about abortion in the strongly pro-life country. In the end the girl aborted her child, apparently under intense pressure to do so from her mother and an international pro-abortion group.
But Amnesty International (AI), the human rights organization that last year announced that it now believes that legal access to abortion is a universal "human right," has now claimed that the girl, dubbed "Agata" by the Polish media, became pregnant as a result of a rape, and was then prevented by the hospitals from obtaining a legal abortion and was harassed by pro-life groups.
However, Tomasz Terlikowski, coauthor of a book about the controversy, called "Agata. The Anatomy of Manipulation," told LifeSiteNews (LSN) that AI's statement is "one big lie."
"There is absolutely no credibility to it," he said, "This is all a story made up by abortionists; they have absolutely nothing to confirm it. I really can't believe what we're reading in this report by AI."
The report, available on AI's website, claims that Agata was "pregnant as a result of rape." It also says that Agata "was subjected to delays in accessing a legal abortion," and that, "hospitals in Lublin and Warsaw refused to perform the abortion, despite its lawfulness, and failed to refer her."
The human rights group also accuses pro-life activists of "harassing" the girl and her mother, saying that Agata "and her mother were not protected from direct and personal harassment by abortion opponents."
Terlikowski told LSN, however, that the clear facts of the case tell a dramatically different story.
Rather than rape, said Terlikowski, the cause of the pregnancy was clearly attested to by Agata and her boyfriend, who "testified to the police that they had sex with mutual consent." Instead, it was "the mother and abortion activists who sold the rape story to the media" in an effort to obtain the abortion, he said.
As for the hospitals refusing to perform the abortion, Terlikowski observes that the delay had more to do with Agata herself, than with the hospital's willingness or unwillingness. The "hospitals refused to perform the abortion because the girl changed her mind many times, whether to abort or not," he said, noting that Agata "was under serious pressure from her mother and abortion advocates who 'took care' of her."
"Agata sent text messages to friends indicating that she was threatened with being kicked out of the house if she insisted on keeping her pregnancy," he told LSN. "She would sign and then withdraw her consent to abortion."
"So hospitals said 'we're not doing it, we have serious doubts if she wants it and if her decisions are independent.'"
Terlikowski also points out that "absolutely no 'harassment' from abortion opponents has been proved," noting that Agata "never spoke of any harassment because there wasn't any."
Terlikowski said that she "kept in touch with abortion opponents, including one priest, whom she texted regularly, but was forbidden from seeing. She communicated willingly with him often and treated him as a friend."
"The only example of 'harassment' that the most viciously pro-abortion newspaper [Gazeta Wyborcza] could quote on this issue," he said, "is that Agata received text messages saying 'save your baby, it will love you,' or that she was given a box of chocolate and a book about baby care from somebody at the hospital."
"The girl was isolated from abortion opponents early on once pro-abortion Gazeta Wyborcza newspaper started their vicious anti-life media campaign," Terlikowski said. "She was always in the company of her mother, abortion activists, including pro-abortion lawyer, sometimes a social worker."
"The police never found any proof or any trace of the alleged harassment from abortion opponents."
Related LifeSiteNews.com Coverage:
Amnesty International Tars Poland over Abortion Access
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/jun/09062509.html
Poland in an Uproar after Coercive Abortion Pressure Put on 14-Year-Old by Planned Parenthood
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/jun/08061008.html
Tragic Conclusion: Polish 14-Year-Old Aborts Baby in Controversial Case
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/jun/08061902.html