MADRID, Spain (LifeSiteNews) – Over 50,000 people thronged the streets of Madrid on March 12 for Spain’s March for Life.
The annual event, called the Yes to Life march, was sponsored by over 500 organizations belonging to the Spanish Yes to Life Platform (Plataforma SI A LA VIDA).
The March took place two weeks earlier than its customary date of March 25, the feast day of the Annunciation and the International Day of Life, to “facilitate attendance from all cities in Spain to Madrid,” according to the Yes to Life Platform. The marchers protested “laws and practices that threaten life and human nature at every moment of life” in Spain, such as abortion, euthanasia, and transgenderism.
The march began at noon, leaving from Calle Serrano, and ended at the Plaza de Cibeles.
As part of the event, two women gave personal testimonies of choosing life despite difficult circumstances, according to CNA. The first was Marita, who took the stage with her son Santiago to share how 40 Days for Life volunteers dissuaded her from aborting him.
She explained that her husband left her when he learned of her pregnancy.
“I went over to [the 40 Days for Life volunteers] myself and asked them for help,” she said. “I wanted to feel that I was not alone or abandoned and they made me feel that way, that I was safe. And I decided not to go [into the abortion clinic].”
“Today I am here with my son, which is the best thing that could have happened to me,” she added.
The second mother to speak, Melissa, said that when she was pregnant with her fourth child, a social worker asked her what she was going to do with “so many children,” telling her that abortion was “the ideal thing to do” in her situation. However, Melissa said that she was convinced to choose life for her baby after talking to members of the John Paul II Rescuers and More Future Foundation, who gave her the help she needed.
#SiALaVida March For Life in Madrid
Over 50000 people came to the march to say #HesToLife pic.twitter.com/LxsfUNrkal— ONE OF US (@oneofuseu) March 12, 2023
During the event, the march’s manifesto, signed by the 500 participating organizations, was read to the crowd. It demanded that Spain recognize that “human beings have the right to life and to be treated as their dignity deserves, from their conception to natural death and at all times and in all circumstances.”
The manifesto also asked that Spain put an end to “all laws and practices that threaten life and human nature at any moment of its existence, as well as the businesses and ideologies that sustain them,” demanding that “that the biological truth of human life not be covered over.”
“Spain must be an advanced nation, progressive in terms of true rights and conservative of objective and perennial values.”
The crowd also observed a moment of silence for all those who have lost their lives to the culture of death. They also released balloons into the air in commemoration of the dead while organizers played aloud the sound of a child’s heartbeat.
Abortion is legal in Spain during the first 14 weeks of pregnancy.
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