(LifeSiteNews) — Polish presidential candidate Slawomir Mentzen has been targeted for his pro-life comments defending unborn babies conceived in rape.

During a March 26 interview with journalist Krzysztof Stanowski, conservative political party New Hope leader Slawomir Mentzen declared that he is pro-life, regardless of whether the baby is conceived in rape, prompting backlash from abortion activists and pro-abortion candidates.

“We have no right to kill another person just because they upset us, are unpleasant to us, or could seriously harm our lives. We do not kill innocent people – I believe this is very important,” he said.

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His comments sparked outrage from the abortion movement, including Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, the frontrunner and candidate of Poland’s governing Civic Platform.

“I will be pushing our coalition partners to vote for a bill that will abolish these medieval anti-abortion laws,” Trzaskowski told a rally in Slupca on Friday.

Currently, Mentzen is polling third in the presidential campaign, behind Trzaskowski and Law and Justice candidate Karol Nawrocki ahead of the May election.

Mentzen, an entrepreneur and tax adviser, is especially popular with Poland’s youth, with 1.6 million TikTok followers.

Currently, Poland has some of the most pro-life laws of in the European Union, making the country a sanctuary for the unborn.

The country enforces an almost total ban on abortion, with exceptions in place only for the life or health of the mother or for instances in which a woman becomes pregnant due to a criminal act. Abortion, the violent destruction of an unborn child in his or her mother’s womb, is never medically necessary or justifiable.

In cases of illegal abortions in Poland, only the medical staff committing abortions, and not the women obtaining them, are subject to prosecution in the country.