Conversation with Dr. Katarzyna Ratkowska, psychiatrist with more than 25 years of experience in the profession
Laura Lipińska: In the context of the full work of the Minister of Health, in the case of the Polish Ministry of Health, how do you see his fresh activities related to abortion law? What do you think of the thought of extending the current abortional conditions to decently abortion upon request? What can the creation of this "pick" in abortion law in Poland lead to?
Katarzyna Ratkowska: This is an absolute scandal. You, called the Minister of Health, will set up a squad that will find the criteria for killing conceived children. This is most likely any effort to circumvent the Constitutional Court's ruling, which prohibited eugenic abortion and which was the consequence of active opposition from people. People collected signatures under the civic task “Stop abortion” and expressed their willingness to rescue disabled unborn children. And here, suddenly, a man called the Minister of wellness decides that he's now inventing any kind of squad that's working on determining the criteria for killing specified children and that's inactive secret. This is absolutely outrageous and unacceptable in a democratic state, in a state of law.
LL: Can it be therapeutic for a psychiatrist to kill a kid in any situation?
KR: First, I'll tell you what I think of any indication for alleged psychiatric reasons, the fact that it's a psychiatrist who's expected to give any kind of evidence that a parent can kill her child. First of all, a female who uses a psychiatrist needs first and foremost support and care during pregnancy, not coercion to kill a child. If a female who has no support especially in the father of a kid and in her household becomes pregnant, it is simply a immense challenge and difficulty for her due to the fact that she has no sense of security. And now the psychiatrist's doctor is expected to support her so that she can have a baby safely, alternatively than trick her into having an abortion as an option. It won't be due to the fact that abortion, or killing your own child, is against human nature, and specified an act will surely not aid any woman, much little a female who needs intellectual or even psychiatric support.
Killing your kid does not have a therapeutic value, on the contrary – abortion will sooner or later destabilize the psyche and wellness of a woman, due to the fact that it is an act against nature, against what makes us human, against humanity. Abortion is killing people and killing humanity at the same time. It's cheating a female if individual tries to convince her that abortion can aid her in any way.
LL: Have you met with cases of women after an abortion? How does abortion affect their intellectual state?
KR: Yeah, I've been seeing women who were very sorry for having an abortion. They were helped by spiritual support and therapy and by naming their child. There are besides women who think that abortion did not impress them. I think it's from any kind of self-deception. Post-abortion syndrome, psychiatrists, and psychologists are widely known for its existence. Sometimes she appears immediately, and sometimes years after an abortion, when, under any life circumstances, she reaches a female deeper into what she has done. This causes large pain, sadness, and regret that she has been persuaded or that she has failed to meet the hard situation. This syndrome requires intellectual and spiritual treatment, due to the fact that abortion is simply a physical and intellectual injury, that is, it requires psychotherapy, as well as spiritual aid to face the remorse it brings.
Unfortunately, there are besides women who have no awareness or cognition that human life starts with conception and do not realize that abortion is the killing of human life that has already begun. It is known and there is no uncertainty that since half of the genetic material of the parent and father in the fertilized egg cell is met, we are dealing with a completely fresh human existence, human life. In that genetic material, everything is already recorded in terms of the characteristics of this fresh human being, or sex (women have 2 X chromosomes, men have X and Y chromosomes; this genetic sex evidence is found in all cell of all human being), its biological characteristics, similarity to father and mother, certain predispositions to certain diseases, characteristics of temperament of a given person, etc. This is already a qualitatively fresh life, from the minute of conception the existence of a fresh man begins. Unfortunately, there are women who do not know this, who are lied to by the “right” to abortion. The word “abortion” is fundamentally a concealment of truth, due to the fact that abortion is simply a pro-murder, it is an interruption of human life. At a very early phase of this life, but yet the life of a fresh man whose existence has already begun.
LL: Is the stress of receiving an unfavorable diagnosis of intellectual deterioration something peculiar or alternatively a norm? How do you aid specified women? What is real support for them?
KR: There's quite a few stress in this situation. I wouldn't call it a intellectual disorder. This is physiology, a average phenomenon – erstwhile we experience various hard situations, we experience stress, and then our intellectual well-being deteriorates, but it is not a intellectual state disorder, it is simply a strong stress. For all parent the stress will be the news that her kid may be born sick due to the fact that all parent wishes her kid the best. Of course, in this situation it requires the support of the household and the environment, and it does not always receive specified support. Here I remember a circumstantial example of my patient who received the diagnosis that her kid could be born sick and was under quite a few stress, but not due to the fact that the baby would be born with a genetic defect, just due to the fact that her full family, including her husband, encouraged her to have an abortion. She felt a large contradiction and tension in herself, due to the fact that her maternal instinct was against it, and on the another hand she was aware that she could not handle herself. Her heart was torn. And that was the reason for the stress – the deficiency of support for the loved ones, the deficiency of acceptance for her child. sick or healthy – it was her child. quite a few women won't even think about abortion until individual tells them.
And how does it aid women who come up with a bad diagnosis and are mentally incapable to cope with it? First of all, I wouldn't call it a diagnosis, due to the fact that it's more of a suspicion of disease. There are many cases of erroneously placed specified "diagnosis" – doctors said that the kid would be born with a defect and was born completely healthy. There are besides cases that doctors say everything is fine and the baby is born sick. Also, this prenatal, prenatal diagnosis is not always so sure. We are more likely to have a baby than we are to be certain that the baby will be born with a defect.
And now a female must be given all possible support—material, intellectual and spiritual. If this is simply a female who, for various reasons, will not be able to take care of a sick child, she may give her kid up for adoption after birth and should be informed of this. I besides survey married couples who request a certificate from a psychiatrist that they are suitable for adoption and are contrary to appearances truly very much, and children so small that they besides adopt those sick if they have the right conditions. The State should besides supply support so that this female can take care of this child. At this point, with the hands of the pseudo-government, the state is trying to waive its work for the destiny of these women and their children. There's a band calling to debate killing these kids alternatively of helping.
There is another very crucial issue, namely the issue of prenatal treatment, namely the treatment of children in the womb, which thanks to the current technology has large opportunities. Children heal in the wombs of mothers! Unfortunately, this field of medicine (prenatal medicine) will not make if children are killed alternatively than treated.
LL: Is the psychiatrist’s doctor able to truly foretell how the patient’s wellness will change during pregnancy?
KR: Your doctor does not request to foretell due to the fact that he is accompanying specified a patient, or at least he should accompany her. I'm actually a psychiatrist who's besides a psychotherapist. If this were to be the care of a psychiatrist who is not a psychotherapist, then of course the psychotherapist or scientist should be included in the care and specified persons interact and accompany the mother, observing her well-being. I, as a doctor, then see what happens to the patient, I don't gotta anticipate anything, I have contact with her, and I effort to give her adequate intellectual support. I had mothers who were pregnant, who were depressed, and who were happily pregnant, it's not unusual. Your doctor will accompany you as long as she needs.
LL: Worse erstwhile the doctor gives a message that she will be depressed if she gives birth to the baby and sends the patient out of the door to implement the “recept” for abortion...
KR: Yes, ma'am! That's not a medical certificate! What do you mean she's gonna be depressed? I mean, she's going to have a low mood? If, for example, a female has just learned that her kid may be ill, it is natural that she already has a lowered temper and the task of a doctor and scientist or psychotherapist is to aid this parent so that she can face this challenge so that she is not alone. The depressed mood, by any hastily called depression, is simply a natural thing in all man erstwhile he is faced with any very hard stress situation, which is hard for him to face, especially alone. The doctor is to accompany specified a individual so that she is not alone in this struggle. And already this companionship makes the temper of specified a patient improve due to the fact that she has support, she is not alone. The worst thing is to stay alone with the problem. It's any kind of certificate you said you had to kill a kid due to the fact that your parent might be depressed, it's not a conviction written by a doctor, but by any fairy.
There is besides a immense area to stretch, and it is fundamentally circumventing the law to introduce abortion on request. There's quite a few force to be depressed. And even if specified a female is threatened with depression due to the diagnosis of a kid or pregnancy, if she has truly serious symptoms of reduced mood, depression, sadness, including suicidal thoughts, then depression is cured. That's why we have psychotherapy. You don't treat anyone by killing individual else.
Such are the sick times – human life and dignity are trampled on. The life of a sick man is no little crucial or worse than the life of a healthy man. An adult’s life is not interrupted due to the fact that he is sick or has a genetic defect. And that's not a reason to break the life of a man who is at the phase of prenatal development.
LL: Thank you very much.
The interview was given by a doctor, Katarzyna Ratkowska – psychiatrist, psychotherapist. Dr. Ratkowska was 1 of those who participated on 29 August 2023. in intervention at the Ministry of wellness together with members of the Life and household Foundation and associate Grzegorz Braun. After leaving the Ministry of wellness building, she was harassed by the police. She was detained and identified, and police told her to explain what she was doing at the Ministry of wellness and prevented her from returning to the clinic's patients. All this, despite being legally present on the Ministry's premises as a individual admitted to parliamentary intervention.
