Saturday, March 18, 2017

No Freedom of Speech in Poland: Public Universities Cancel Talks by American Pro-Life Speaker

“I've never had a speech cancelled in the United States”


By Natalia Dueholm
Life Site News


Four universities were pressured by the radical left this week to cancel talks by American pro-life speaker Rebecca Kiessling, forcing organizers to move her presentations to alternate locations during a speaking tour in Poland.

Ultimately, however, these intimidation tactics backfired.

The Polish legal organization Ordo Iuris Institute for Legal Culture invited Kiessling to speak, primarily in university towns. Kiessling is an American mother and lawyer who was conceived in rape.

The plan was to meet students, journalists, politicians and pro-life activists. Kiessling wrote on her Facebook page that she came “to speak on behalf of #OrdoIuris efforts to remove #RapeException from the 1993 law.”


Joanna Zając of Ordo Iuris explained to LifeSiteNews that Kiessling was scheduled to speak at four public universities, in Warsaw, Wrocław, Toruń and Krakow, but all were cancelled after protests by left-wing activists, including the radical Together party. Warsaw University backed down because the event “promoted specific beliefs and was not an academic discussion.”

The organizers agreed to change the format of the event from a lecture to a discussion and still hoped Kiessling would be able to speak at the university. In other cases, the organizers simply moved the event somewhere else.

The only university that did not succumb to the pressure was the Catholic University in Lublin, where Kiessling’s appearance went as planned. It can be viewed here.

“I've never had a speech cancelled in the United States,” she explained.



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