BRUSSELS, March 30, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In recent years the Marches for Life in North America have been dominated by enormous numbers of young people, largely under age 35, who have grown into a formidable force in the world of pro-life politics in both the U.S. and Canada.
This trend seems to have jumped the Atlantic with 3,000, mostly youth, attending the second annual March for Life this weekend in Brussels. The event was accompanied by similar marches in Prague last week and Bucharest, Romania.
An organizer of the Brussels event said they believe that the popularity of the marches with younger people is a sign that the tide is turning against the abortion mentality in Europe.
Organizer Antony Burckhardt said, “Which law, 20 years after being voted in, continues to brings out thousands of people to the streets to protest it? We can kill thousands of little people but no one can ever kill our consciences!”
Responding to the accusation of being “crazy conservatives,” Burckhardt said that young people simply want a “new debate opened on this law.”
“We all want a society with out any type of discrimination, without discrimination founded on sex or ethnic background, but especially without the type of discrimination founded on whether a person has the capacity to speak out for oneself or not.
“We don’t want to return to the past, we want a new society founded on justice for all, a society that protects the most fragile and vulnerable. We want human respect for everyone.”
Organizers credited the enthusiastic support of André-Mutien Léonard, the Catholic archbishop of Brussels who, in sharp contrast to his predecessor, Cardinal Danneels, has a strong record of supporting the Church’s teachings on life and family. Leonard’s support was crucial, Burckhardt said, because he is also president of the national conference of Catholic bishops of Belgium and has a great deal of influence in the Church.
A counter-protest organized by Planned Parenthood drew no more than 350 people according to Brussels police. The counter protesters, Burckhardt said, also furthered the pro-life cause by forcing the abortion debate into the mainstream media.
Participants and speakers came from France, Germany, Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Poland, the U.S. and the Netherlands.
Katie Robinson, an American working with Ireland’s Youth Defence, attended the march and addressed the crowd saying, “Youth Defence started with just a small group of teenagers, and is now the biggest and most active pro-life group in Ireland. We see that the something special is happening here in Brussels, and we stand with the Belgian people as they join the people of Ireland in saying No to Abortion.”
Rebecca Roughneen of Youth Defence, told LSN, “The remarkable thing about the Brussels march is that it was organized from start to finish by a small group of young people in their early twenties.” These have learned their work from attending Youth Defence conferences in Ireland, she said.
“Unfortunately for them,” she added, as a relatively new group “they are finding it difficult to get donations.”
On Saturday, three Romanian marches were held simultaneously in the capital city Bucharest, in Timisoara and in Satu Mare. They were organized by a coalition of 20 groups including Gift of Life Association, a Roman Catholic group affiliated with Human Life International, and The Pro-vita Federation run under the auspices of the Romanian Orthodox Church.
Corina Radulescu, one of some 200 marchers, told AFP, “Abortion is one of the most serious crimes. Sometimes women who have an abortion don’t realize that.”
Romania suffers one of the highest rates of abortion in the European Union, with 990,000 abortions to 314,000 births according to this year’s statistics. Bogdan Stanciu, head of the Pro Vita association that organized the march, called on political parties to “protect life and abolish legislation permitting abortion.”
Emil Florea, a 43-year-old physical therapist and father of five, said, “Christian Orthodox believers should not resort to contraception. Abstinence should be encouraged. This way there is no risk of getting a disease.”