By Matthew Anderson
September 30, 2009, Berlin (LifeSiteNews.com) – This past Saturday, September 26, 1300 pro-life demonstrators marched through Berlin from City Hall to St. Hedwig's Cathedral hoping to bring an end to abortion in Germany.
The participants marched silently along the route, holding 1000 white wooden crosses as a sign of protest against abortion in Germany. The 1000 white crosses symbolized the estimated 1000 unborn babies killed in Germany each day.
Abortion is technically illegal under Germany's constitution, but the German Parliament passed a law in 1995 that eliminated any punishment for abortion in the first trimester. However, the law stated that before a woman could get an abortion, she must first receive counseling and be informed that the unborn child has a right to live.
The March, which was organized by Bundesverband Lebensrecht, an organization in Germany that acts as an umbrella for other pro-life groups, drew significantly more people than it did last year when reports estimated attendance to be at 800.
Auxiliary Bishop of Salzburg Andreas Laun and Lutheran Bishop Hans-Jörg Voigt personally attended the march, while greetings were read from Cardinal Georg Sterzinsky, archbishop of Berlin and the Lutheran Bishop Wolfgang Huber.
Among those who spoke at the March was Martin Kastler, a Member of the European Parliament representing Germany. Kastler, a member of the European People's Party, quoted Mother Teresa in his speech, saying that abortion kills two, the unborn child and the conscience of the mother.
Further, Kastler said that it is necessary for pro-lifers to publicly commit themselves to the rights of the unborn. Though this may be inconvenient at times, Kastler stressed that courage is needed in order to witness to the dignity of life.
During the March, the 1300 participants were heckled by 400 pro-abortion demonstrators, led by left-wing party members and the group Pro-Familia, the German wing of abortion providers. According to the German newspaper “Die Tagespost,” pro-abortion demonstrators shouted blasphemous sayings and held up inflated condoms and sex toys to mock the protestors.
Pro-abortion demonstrators also cried for unrestricted access to abortion in Germany, and cheap and affordable contraception, especially for minors and families with low-income.
Further, it was reported that many of the pro-abortion activists went so far as to take some of the white crosses used in the protest and throw them in the river.
The pro-abortion demonstrators got so agitated that, at one point, the police had to step in and physically remove one of them from the scene. During an ecumenical service at St. Hedwig's Cathedral at the end of the march, one woman attempted to throw eggs into the Cathedral. However, before she could succeed, she was carried away by police.