Poland’s education ministry settles with parents who sued over IVF comments in school textbook

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Poland’s education ministry has reached a settlement with parents who sued it under the former conservative government over a contentious passage about in vitro fertilisation (IVF) in a school textbook.

The lawsuit, filed by the parents of a girl conceived through IVF, claimed the book – which likened IVF to “human production” or “breeding” and asked “Who will love children produced this way?” – violated their child’s honour and dignity.

The dispute dates back to 2022, under the former Law and Justice (PiS) government, when a textbook was introduced for a newly created subject called History and the Present.

Written by Wojciech Roszkowski, an academic who previously served as a PiS MEP from 2004 to 2009, the book drew controversy for its conservative content.

One passage says that “medical advances and the offensive of gender ideology…have brought further decay to the institution of the family”. Another part said that the Black Lives Matter movement is “characterised by a certain disdain, one could even say hatred, for white people”.

The section on IVF said that children are being brought into the world by “arbitrary groups of people…separately from the natural union of man and woman, most preferably in a laboratory”, with sex being treated “as entertainment and the sphere of fertility as human production, one might say breeding”.

In response, Joanna Mieszczankowska and Kamil Mieszczankowski, the parents of a daughter born through IVF, sued the education ministry, saying that the book “stigmatises parents and children who have benefited from IVF”.

In December 2023, a new, more liberal government took power from PiS. This week, the education ministry announced that an agreement has now been reached to end the lawsuit.

“Due to the agreement of both parties that such content should not be taught, the parties have decided to end the dispute by signing a settlement,” wrote the ministry, which did not reveal details of what the settlement involves.

Education minister Barbara Nowacka expressed her solidarity with the plaintiffs, stating that the textbook infringed on the personal rights of children conceived via IVF and their families.

“At the education ministry, we share the opinion of Mr and Mrs Mieszczankowski that the personal rights of not only couples who have used IVF but also their children have been violated. Today, we have signed a settlement that has ended the litigation that began under the PiS government,” wrote Nowacka.

In her post, Nowacka also noted that Roszkowski, the textbook’s author, had sued her for 600,000 zlotys (€140,289). She called it a “classic SLAPP”, meaning strategic lawsuits against public participation, a term used for legal action designed to censor, intimidate and silence critics.

The lawsuit concerns Nowacka’s comments in October that there was “a lie was on every page of the textbook” written by Roszkowski.

Under Nowacka’s leadership, the education ministry is planning to replace History and the Present with a new subject titled Civic Education. The current government has also reversed PiS’s decision to end state funding for IVF.

Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

Main image credit: MEN (under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 PL)

Alicja Ptak

Alicja Ptak is senior editor at Notes from Poland and a multimedia journalist. She previously worked for Reuters.