By Gudrun Schultz

March 26, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Nations around the world observed the “Day of the Unborn Child” yesterday, established in growing ranks of countries as an official day of recognition for the unborn. The date coincides with the Christian celebration of the feast of the Annunciation, marking the incarnation of Christ in the womb of the Virgin Mary.

The movement originated in El Salvador in 1993 as the “Day for the Right to be Born,” and has since spread to include multiple countries in South and Central America, as well as the Philippines and Australia.

Summarizing the intention of the commemoration day, the president of Nicaragua declared in January 2000 that, “the right to life is the first of human rights and deserves total attention on the part of the state, its institutions and the whole of society.”

A day dedicated to the recognition of the unborn child has been formally established in Argentina, Chile, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic. Other nations celebrating unofficial observances include Austria, Slovakia, Uruguay and Spain.

For the first time this year, Peru officially declared March 25 as the “Day of the Unborn”, Zenit News Agency reported March 22.

“The new being might be wanted or unwanted, perhaps unexpected,” the Family and Defense of Life Commission of the Peruvian bishops’ conference said. “It might be in the maternal womb or in a laboratory plate, perhaps in a freezer; it might have been generated by love or in violence, in the warmth of a home or the coldness of irresponsible recklessness.”

“But none of these circumstances modifies the scientific truth, which remains unharmed and unchanging: We are before a human being, as valuable as one already born.”

The commission’s message entitled “Love, Celebrate and Defend Life,” reiterated the Church’s call to welcome “the great and mysterious gift of life that shines in every human being, especially those about to be born.”

In the Czech Republic, pro-life advocates held a demonstration against abortion in Prague’s Old Town Square, the Prague Daily Monitor reported earlier today.

“The existence of such a perverted evil as killing innocent children in [their] mothers’ womb has been deeply anchored in society over the [past] 50 years. A change is urgent,” Zdenka Rybova, from the Movement for Life, said in an address to the crowd.

Organizers of the March said they hope to start a prayer campaign against abortion modeled after an existing movement in Poland, where abortions were banned in 1993.

See previous LifeSiteNews coverage:

Pro-life Governments Around World Declaring March 25 “Day for the Unborn Child”
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/mar/06032807.html