Poland Ideal Getaway for Christian Right

Editor's note: Due to safety concerns, this author is writing anonymously while she attends the World Congress of Families. This posting originally appeared on www.rhrealitycheck.org

Poland is beginning to look like an ideal European getaway for the Christian Right -- and advocates for women's rights might want to pay attention to this recent addition to the European Union. Since assuming power in 2005, President Lech Kaczynski has raised the hackles of the European Parliament by enacting or endorsing social policies based on fundamentalist biblical principles, some of which violate the European Convention on Human Rights.

Post-communism, in the early 1980s, Poland tightened the reigns on many social policies. Today, it has one of the most restrictive abortion laws in Europe, sex education in public schools is almost non-existent, and 45% of Polish women use "natural family planning" as their principal method of contraception. Crucifixes can be found in the halls of most public institutions, including the Parliament, state offices and public schools.

No wonder then that the World Congress of Families (WCF), an international network of "pro-family" activists led by the Illinois-based Howard Center for Family, Religion and Society, will be hosting its fourth conference in Warsaw this week.