An explosion of life

Two million according to the organizing committee, 1,200,000 according to the municipality of Madrid, took part in the mass demonstration in the Spanish capital on Saturday 17 October, organized by 42 civil associations, to protest against the bill on abortion presented to Parliament by the government of Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. A “human tide”, “an explosion of life”: that’s how the dailies described the huge popular participation in the protest. The T-shirts of the participants and the red banners hung over the streets bore the slogan “Cada vida importa”, “Every life is important”. The representatives of various religious confessions, but no bishop participated in the demonstration. Yet the demonstration, as its organizers repeatedly stressed, was non-political. The People’s Party, led by Mariano Rajoy, did not participate with an official delegation, but its representatives at the event included former Spanish Premier José María Aznar.Five thousand white balloons. The demonstration represented a very clear position of civil society in Spain, and not only of the Catholic community, in response to the forthcoming discussion in Parliament of the planned reform of the law on abortion. According to the new legislation, abortion will be “a right”, freely exercised in the first 14 weeks of pregnancy, and possible up to the 22nd week in the case of malformations of the foetus or physical and psychological risks for the mother. However, it is just the otherwise unspecified “psychological damages” that are those most used to authorize interruptions of pregnancy. At the present time there are 112,000 abortions per year in Spain. Music and pro-life testimonies characterized the protest rally. The presenter of the event, the journalist of “Cadena 100” Javi Nieves emphasized that the demonstration of 17 October was “the largest in the history of Spain”. The victims of abortion were also remembered: while silence reigned at Puerta de Alcalá, five thousand white balloons were released into the sky to the sound of a cello. Protecting life. The manifesto of the protest was read out by the women journalists Cristina López Schlichting, Isabel Durán and Isabel San Sebastián, all exponents of the platform “Women against Abortion”. In their manifesto the organizations that participated in the march asked the government to withdraw the proposed legislation to reform the law on abortion. During the reading of the manifesto, voices were also raised calling for the resignation of Zapatero. According to the demonstrators, the government bill will involve “the total lack of protection for the two victims of abortion: the unborn child, who will be deprived of legal protection, and the woman, who is forced to abort for lack of an alternative”. In the organizers’ view, the new law “will deprive women of their right to maternity, will do nothing to prevent abortions and will quantitatively increase the huge failure that a procured abortion always represents”. Benigno Blanco, President of the Forum of Spanish Families, concluded the demonstration by asking politicians to listen to “the street protest” against the new law on abortion. “The right to life – he said – is too important. We must protect it. A healthy and human society cannot live with a permissive law on abortion: neither with the one currently in force, nor with the one announced. It can live with no such law at all”. The aim of the organizations involved in Saturday’s demonstration, declared Blanco, is never to stop “until no abortions are carried out in Spain”. In spite of the success of the protest, the government, through its ministers, continues to defend the reform of the law on abortion.Moving example. Even if they did not participate directly in Saturday’s rally, many bishops commented on the event. The Archbishop of Valencia, Carlos Osoro, complemented the participants “for their moving example of the defence of life and freedom”. He also underlined “the great success of the demonstration”. In his view, “the wide acceptance of abortion is one of the most shocking phenomena of our time” which “throws into doubt one of the fundamental principles not only of Christian morality, but also of ethics as a whole: the value of human life and its consequent inviolability”. The Bishop of Huesca and Jaca, Mgr. Jesús Sanz, has called the reform of the law on abortion that the government is promoting “male chauvinist” and “unjust”. And the claim to qualify procured abortion as a right to be defended is, he said, a “poisoned well of immorality and injustice”. According to Demetrio Fernández, Bishop of Tarazona, it is a “real disaster”, with unpredictable effects and with women who will remain scarred for the rest of their life. Over 60 organizations from 23 countries and 4 continents (Africa, America, Asia and Europe) took part in the demonstration.