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Mexico City Pilgrimage to Protest Abortion Law to be Held this Sunday

By Matthew Cullinan Hoffman

MEXICO CITY, June 20, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Archdiocese of Mexico City will hold a pilgrimage this Sunday through the heart of the nation's capital to celebrate the right to life and to protest against a city ordinance that permits abortions without restrictions up to the 12th week of gestation.

According to Catholic news sources, at least 63 separate organizations will participate in the march, which is being called the "Pilgrimage for the Marvelous Gift of Life."  The march will begin at the Exglorieta de Peravillo at 9 am and end at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, where a mass will be said at 12 noon by Cardinal Archbishop Don Noberto Rivera Carrera, Primate of Mexico.  Participants are asked to dress in white.

Marchers will carry the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mexico's most sacred relic, as well as that of St. Juan Diego, and will pray the rosary.

"Let us pray and ask the Most Holy Virgin of Guadalupe to care for and protect the conceived who have yet to be born, and their pregnant mothers," says the promotional poster announcing the event.

The pilgrimage is being organized by the diocesan organization "Union de Voluntades" (Union of Wills), whose General Coordinator, Guillermo Bustamante Manilla, says that participants will "thank God the Father for the 'Marvelous Gift of Life'" and ask the Virgin Mary "to intercede so that the smallest of her children, the Conceived who are within the maternal womb, and Mexican women who are pregnant, receive the protection of her Sacred Cloak from the unjust law that permits the de facto murder of human beings in their most vulnerable stage of life."

The "Gift of Life" is a quotation from a statement made by Pope John Paul II, who said during one of his visits to Mexico, "No Mexican should dare to victimize the precious and sacred gift of life that grows in the womb."

Mexico City's abortion law, the only one of its type in the nation, was passed last year by the socialist Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), which controls both the executive and legislative branches of city government. Since that time, over 6,000 abortions have been carried out, and pro-life organizations say that 8 mothers have died, although the city government has only recognized one of the deaths.

The Mexican Supreme Court is currently hearing arguments in a suit brought against the law by the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH), which argues that the law violates the right to life enshrined in the nation's Constitution.

Previous LifeSiteNews.com coverage:

While Supreme Court Debates Abortion Law, Mexicans March for Life
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/may/08052710.html

1 Year of Legal Abortion in Mexico: 6400 Legal Abortions, 22 Injuries, 8 Dead Mothers
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/apr/08040707.html

Mexico City Official Admits that Decriminalization has Increased the Number of Abortions
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/apr/08042405.html

Latest Legal Challenge to Mexico Abortion Law Pushes for Human Rights of "Conceived Persons"
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/jun/07061103.html

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