MADRID – Tens of thousands of anti-abortion campaigners protesting against a proposal to liberalise Spanish abortion laws marched though Madrid on Saturday in one of the largest demonstrations since anti-war protests in 2003 and 2004.
It was a vivid and emotional show of how the issue remains sensitive 24 years after abortion was legalised under specific circumstances in the traditionally Catholic country.
“We have clearly beaten attendance at our previous marches; over 900 coaches with demonstrators have come to take part . . . I think we have met our target for a million people,” said Mercedes Coloma, chairwoman of parents’ association Cofapa.
There was no independent assessment of the crowd’s size.
Under the slogan, “every life counts”, the march was called by Spanish anti-abortion groups to challenge a socialist government proposal to allow abortion up to the 14th week of gestation.
The government has said current law allowing abortions only in cases of rape, foetal damage or danger to the physical or mental health of the mother unfairly brands women who wish to abort, and their doctors, as criminals.
One of the most potentially divisive elements of the Bill for Spain’s traditionally Catholic electorate is the proposal to allow 16-year-olds to end pregnancies without parental consent, which even sectors of the socialist vote have opposed.
The Bill runs the risk of galvanising opposition to Spain’s minority government and its prime minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, who has been criticised for his handling of the economic crisis.
An October 3rd poll by El Paísnewspaper after cabinet approval of a 2010 budget which boosts taxes by €11 billion showed 61 per cent of interviewees disapproved of Mr Zapatero's handling of the economy. – (Reuters, AP)