IRELAND CASTS A SHADOW AT POLAND’S PRO-LIFE CROSSROADS

Cultural ties between Ireland and Poland run deep.  “Like Ireland, Poland has long been under the mailed heel of the oppressor,” proclaimed one American Catholic publication in 1896.  Catholicism, colonialism, and catastrophe long epitomized these lands.  A century and a quarter later, these characteristics have considerably diminished.

Some, though, would gladly build new, repugnant ties to replace the old.  This aim has been on display lately, as opportunists have responded to the death of 33-year-old Polish woman Dorota Lalik, who was five months pregnant.  When her water broke at week twenty of her pregnancy, doctors told her to lie with her legs up to restore proper fluid circulation.  She died of sepsis three days later...