A few years ago, Poland saw a string of demonstrations called Black Mondays in protest against government proposals to tighten the country’s abortion law. US stock market speculator George Soros has also contributed to the wave of protests through international organisations, V4 reported.
In 2016, pro-abortion voices have also emerged in Poland. Demonstrations against tightening the foetus protection law, i.e. plans for a total ban on abortion, were staged in Warsaw and in other cities across Poland. Protesters marched with banners carrying messages like “Abort the government”, and chanted anti-church slogans.
Poland’s law on the protection of foetus adopted in 1993 allowed abortion in three cases: if the pregnancy is a result of rape; if the mother’s life is in danger; and if there’s a risk of irreversible damage to the foetus.
The planned restrictive measures would have abolished these three exceptions, practically introducing a total ban on abortion while the proposal included more subsidies for families raising sick children born out of high-risk pregnancies. In the end, the Sejm (the lower house of the Polish parliament) voted down the proposed restrictions.
The protests were called “Black Monday” because opponents of a blanket ban on abortion took to the streets wearing black clothes. The protests were advertised on the internet and several rallies were staged. In contrast, many Poles put white ribbons on their garments while believers dressed in white joined for a common prayer at noon.
In 2017, a year after the series of protests, it turned out that George Soros’s money was also behind these so-called “Black Mondays”. The Polish Ordo Iuris Institute addressed the issue in an exhaustive report.
The Global Fund for Women (GFW), an ally of the Open Society Foundations and an organisation which provides abortion services worldwide, boasted on its website that they had taken part in the protests in Poland. GFW’s website also makes mention of the fact that they supported an organisation called ASTRA Network in a bid to build stronger resistance.
The Warsaw-based ASTRA is an old ally of Soros’s network. OSF’s 2001 annual report shows that they were cooperating as early as 19 years ago. The organisation is a branch of the Federation for Women and Family Planning (Federacja na rzecz Kobiet i Planowania Rodziny, Federa) also based in Warsaw.
The Global Fund for Women has provided significant amounts of support to both ASTRA and Federa over the years.
(Picture: V4)
ASTRA and Federa are also linked by Krystyna Kacpura, the executive director of Federa and a member of the advisory board at ASTRA.
GFW also indirectly funded Polish pro-abortion organisations. In 2015 and 2016, donated 1.6 million and 617,000 dollars to the Canadian International Network of Women’s Funds (INWF) as fiscal sponsorship. The Canadian fund, on the other hand, is a partner of the MamaCash Fund, based in the Netherlands, which is an ally of Ponton, an independent Polish sex education awareness group. According to data, Ponton received a grant of 30 thousand euros from the Dutch organisation in 2016. It is also a partner of Federa and ASTRA Youth.
The International Women’s Health Coalition (IWHC) has also appeared in the events in Poland. The data available on the OSF website reveals that George Soros is keen to support them with various donations. The Coalition gave ASTRA Network 40 thousand dollars in 2016, and awarded a similar amount to Federa in 2015.
“Poland, this relatively large and populous country that plays a dominant role in the region, is a gem on the crown of George Soros. From here, one can exert influence over other countries, and even over the elites of the EU. The organisations funded or supported by George Soros spread messages that discredit the right wing and conservatives,” Stanislaw Janecki, political journalist with wPolityce, told Hungarian weekly Figyelo last year.
George Soros has declared a vendetta against Poland in recent years, and it appears that the barrage of attacks is unlikely to stop any time soon.
With an overwhelming majority, the European Parliament (EP) adopted a resolution for the eleventh time last week, stating that the rule of law in Poland is continuing to deteriorate. The document was prepared by the Spanish, left-wing chairman of the EP’s Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE), Juan Fernando Lopez Aguilar, who is also an ardent critic of the Hungarian government. The document places great emphasis on LGBTQ rights.
Voicing his opinion on the issue, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban stressed that the rule of law in Poland is in full compliance with European standards. “The condemnation of Poland is a political resolution; it’s another attack by European liberals on Christian, conservative Poland,” he pointed out.
22 organisations and individuals have assisted in the preparation of the report, and the vast majority of them are linked to George Soros’s Open Society Foundations (OSF).
Aborcyjny Dream Team is a Polish pro-abortion organisation that bosts on its own website that they help in promoting the idea that abortion is normal. They are also the co-organisers of the Safe Abortion Day march in Warsaw.
Amnesty International (AI) needs no introduction. The international organisation has strong links to OSF. Between 2016 and 2018, AI Limited (apart from their offices in various countries) was awarded more than 6.6 million dollars in grants by Soros’s foundations.
The organisation, naturally, has an office in Warsaw. Interestingly, their website claims that Ahmed H. – sentenced in September 2018 by Hungarian authorities to 5 years in prison on terrorism charges – is not a terrorist. During the 2015 migrant crisis, Ahmed H. launched an attack against police officers lined up along the Hungarian border.
A Polish organisation called Campaign Against Homophobia (Kampania Przeciw Homofobii) deals with LGBTQ rights. According to the Polish wPolityce news portal, in 2016 they took part in a campaign designed to remind Christians to respect homosexuals, bisexuals and transsexuals. The paper also noted that the campaign was financed by George Soros.
The organisation’s name also appears on the OSF’s website, and data shows that they have received more than USD 345,000 from Soros.
The Civil Development Forum has recently published an analysis on the state of the rule of law in Poland, prepared with the help of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom. One of the authors is Marek Tatala, who has shared an article on his Twitter account in 2018 entitled “Stop obsessing over George Soros and the Koch brothers.”
The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) is also a major beneficiary of OSF’s support as it received a total of USD 1.9 million in 2017 and 2018, combined. Moreover, its current secretary general, Tehran-born Saman Zia-Zarifi, served as deputy director of the Asia Division of the Soros-financed Human Rights Watch, and as Amnesty International’s director for Asia and the Pacific, from 2008 to 2012, meaning he held leadind posts in as many as two flagship organisations by Soros. In addition, several judges at the European Court of Human Rights – who can be linked to George Soros – hold regular consultations with ICJ.
The International Federation for Human Rights also crops up in the OSF’s database, which reveals that it received USD 850,000 in 2016, and an additional USD 800,000 in 2018 from Soros’s network.
In essence, the Open Society European Policy Institute is Soros’s advanced outpost in Europe. According to data made available by lobbyfacts.eu, the lobbyists of one Soros NGO – the Open Society European Policy Institute – had talks with European Commission officials on at least 56 occasions between 2014 and 2020.
The Polish Helsinki Committe also appears to be doing rather well from Soros’s money, as it received nearly USD 1.5 million from OSF. Ewa Letowska, Professor at the Institute of Law Studies at the Polish Academy of Sciences, also contributed to the document. In her CV, Ms Letowska claims that she has been cooperating with the Polish Helsinki Committee since 1992.
Polish Human Rights Commissioner Adam Bodnar, the perfect Soros soldier, also appears on the list. Having graduated from CEU – also known as the Soros University – he worked at the Helsinki Committee between 2004 and 2015 and also had a job at the Batory Foundation funded by Soros. The foundation is linked to the European Stability Initiative (ESI) founded by Gerald Knaus, who became known as Soros’s right-hand man.
ESI’s study published last March, which investigates another segment of Poland’s judicial reform, claims that the establishment of the disciplinary chamber violates the independence of the Supreme Court. In the document, the Soros-funded lobby organisation calls on the European Commission to launch an infringement procedure against Poland. The European Stability Initiative was partnered by the Batory Foundation in making the 16-page document. Gerald Knaus and Adam Bodnar presented their standpoint in Brussels together.
Bodnar was appointed Human Rights Commissioner in 2015 and his 5-year mandate expires this year. Having examined Bodnar’s activities in a lengthy analysis, the Polish Ordo Iuris Intsitute points out that Bodnar’s work focused on promoting an ideological reinterpretation of human rights, instead of safeguarding the realiable protection of rights and freedoms prescribed by the Constitution. The institute also recalls that Mr Bodnar criticised municipalities that issued statements opposing support for the LGBTQ ideologies.
He also expressed indifference towards the violation of religious smybols. He has failed – among other things – to react to an obscene parody of the Corpus Christi parade in Gdansk, or to a brutal attack against a priest, and he also defended the graphic designer who desecrated Poland’s most revered Catholic icon, the Jasna Gora, with an LGBTQ rainbow.