Under the motto ‘Yes to Life,’ tens of thousands marched through the streets of Madrid on Sunday to take a stand against abortion.
According to Si a la Vida, which organized the demonstration, more than 35,000 people from all over Spain turned out at the capital to proclaim that “there are no people who have less value due to their health or capacity.”
Participants carried signs reading, “Thank you mom, for letting me be born,” “The embryo is a human being,” “Listen to the heartbeat, I’ll tell you I’m alive,” “The right to life for all without exception,” and “Young people say yes to life.”
Before the march set out on its route, Madrid’s Deputy Mayor Immaculate Sanz, greeted the crowd, asserting that “policies in favor of abortion” be denounced.
Several VOX politicians were also seen at the march including Rocío Monasterio, head of the party in Madrid. She told El Debate that the defense of life is “fundamental to political action. Everything else is secondary,” stressing that all policies have to “defend the dignity of the person.”
The event has been growing in recent years, as the numbers attest to. More than 500 local organizations participated with bus transport organized from many parts of Spain outside the capital.
Some participants from Cantabria in northern Spain told El Debate, “Life is the most precious and important gift from heaven. Life begets life and death begets death. That’s why we’re here today.”
This year’s march focused on protecting and supporting those with disabilities. At the end of the march, families with a member with a disability testified to the beauty of these lives, too.
“Carlitos is 26 years old and is like a six-month-old boy. He does not walk, he does not speak, he does not communicate,” Paloma Zafrilla told the crowd the story of her brother. “What he does do is smile and whimper. There is no greater life than that of my home and family, especially for my brother. The union we have and the love that has grown among us.”
Speakers also lamented the lack of public resources devoted to helping pregnant women compared to that given to financing abortion, only 20 million euros allocated to support pregnant women, while 40 million are allocated to finance abortion.
The demonstrators observed a minute of silence, too, in memory of “all those children who were not born, in memory of the victims of euthanasia, of those killed by rare diseases, and of all victims of the culture of death.”
The excellent participation in the march comes on the heels of the French government’s decision to enshrine abortion as a protected ‘freedom’ in its national constitution, a tragic decision which the organizers and speakers did not fail to denounce during the event.
