BUENOS AIRES, March 22, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) – More than 1 million pro-life advocates are expected to march in more than 50 cities throughout Argentina on Saturday to show their rejection of abortion in the South American country.
In August 2018, Argentina’s Senate rejected a proposal to legalize abortion for unborn babies up to 14 weeks’ gestation, following months of sometimes violent protests by pro-abortion groups and vocal counterprotests by pro-life groups. The proposed abortion law would have also severely limited the right of medical professionals to object to committing abortions.
The event comes just two days before International Day of the Unborn Child on March 25, which coincides with the Feast of the Annunciation, which Christians recall as the moment that the Holy Spirit announced to the Virgin Mary that she had become the Mother of God. Argentines have celebrated the day since 1999, having become one of the first nations to recognize the event. Last year, thousands of pro-life Argentinians filled the famed Plaza de Mayo in central Buenos Aires and gathered at the iconic obelisk marking the country’s independence from Spain.
Commenting on the events was Paul Coleman of the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF). “International law protects the right to life of every person – including the unborn,” Coleman said in a statement. “The people of Argentina are clearly stating that they want to live in a country where both lives matter – the life of the mother and the life of the unborn child…This prominent pro-life march calls for the protection of the right to life from conception until natural death.”
In advance of the march, Argentine pro-life groups delivered a petition to Argentina’s foreign ministry and signed by more than 140,000 people rejecting a move by the UN Committee on the Status of Women (CSW) to establish abortion and gender ideology as basic human rights. Thousands of representatives of governments and pro-abortion organizations were wrapping up the conference at UN headquarters in New York City on March 22. Representatives from the Vatican, Russia, Brazil, Argentina, and the United States were on hand.
According to AciPrensa, Silvina Spataro of CitzenGo Argentina said that it is “scandalous” that the UN should align itself with International Planned Parenthood Foundation and its “promotion of abortion and broad sexual education.” The leader of Argentina’s charismatic Christian movement, Cecilia Medici, called on Argentina to assume regional leadership to ensure “independence from the New World Order, which seeks to install itself with abortion in the UN.”
Abortion is a hot issue in the general elections slated for October, when Argentines go to the polls to choose among candidates for the Presidency, Congress, and most of the provincial governorships. In recent weeks, pro-abortion protesters wearing green bandannas marched through the streets of Buenos Aires and other cities and proclaimed that they would defeat pro-life senators who voted to preserve unborn children.
ADF attorney Neydy Casillas said, according to a release, that in 2018, “Last August, Argentina embraced life despite huge international pressure to give up existing legislation protecting life and conscience rights. Argentina’s Senators voted down the ‘right to abortion,’ which would have been in violation of the international commitments the country has agreed to and that form part of its constitution. Now, at the upcoming March for Life, hundreds of thousands will show their support for this.”