2 examples:
a. The girl opposite my house got pregnant aged 18, gave birth and lives with her parents. The father did a runner. Now aged 24 she's got a bloke and is planning to get married.
b. I've just been to a "shotgun wedding" - the girl was young, radiant and rotund ... people smiled a little nervously but it happened.
Compare that with the UK's 2 usual options:
(i) the girl goes ahead with the pregnancy, gets emergency accommodation (sharing a building with some unsavoury characters) and social worker support; eventually she gets a council flat. She discovers 18 months on that she can't cope on her own and kid goes into care, life ruined.
(ii) the girls kills the baby.
Life is tough and crises happen. Crises like unwanted pregnancies. But there are always things that can be done. Unmarried mothers always attract comment, but they are not shunned. Poles are not monsters. Perhaps the UK way ahead is actually harder for the woman and child. Killing them with kindness.
And let's face it, having kids is always going to limit you in certain respects. My wife would have done so much better professionally in England and Poland if she'd stayed childless.
Deformed foetuses though - that is a much harder issue to deal with. I have no answers.
a. The girl opposite my house got pregnant aged 18, gave birth and lives with her parents. The father did a runner. Now aged 24 she's got a bloke and is planning to get married.
b. I've just been to a "shotgun wedding" - the girl was young, radiant and rotund ... people smiled a little nervously but it happened.
Compare that with the UK's 2 usual options:
(i) the girl goes ahead with the pregnancy, gets emergency accommodation (sharing a building with some unsavoury characters) and social worker support; eventually she gets a council flat. She discovers 18 months on that she can't cope on her own and kid goes into care, life ruined.
(ii) the girls kills the baby.
Life is tough and crises happen. Crises like unwanted pregnancies. But there are always things that can be done. Unmarried mothers always attract comment, but they are not shunned. Poles are not monsters. Perhaps the UK way ahead is actually harder for the woman and child. Killing them with kindness.
And let's face it, having kids is always going to limit you in certain respects. My wife would have done so much better professionally in England and Poland if she'd stayed childless.
Deformed foetuses though - that is a much harder issue to deal with. I have no answers.