Posted on 10/17/2009 10:47:34 AM PDT by Steelfish
Big Anti-Abortion Rally In Spain
Tens of thousands of people have joined a protest march in the Spanish capital Madrid to oppose government plans to liberalise the country's abortion law.
Organisers said they hoped more than one million people would attend the rally, from all over the country.
Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero wants to introduce abortion on demand. At present, a pregnancy can only be terminated in mainly Catholic Spain under specific circumstances.
It is the latest in a series of ethical issues which have pitted the Catholic right against the Socialist government, which has legalised gay marriage and made divorce easier.
'Rights and respect' Saturday's march, called Every Life Matters, brings together more than 40 religious and civil society groups.
They are demanding that the government withdraw the draft law currently in the parliament, which would introduce abortion on demand within the first 14 weeks of a pregnancy.
It would also permit girls aged 16 and 17 to have an abortion without their parents' knowledge. "This new law is a barbarity," said one protester, Jose Carlos Felicidad, from the southern town of Algeciras. "In this country, they protect animals more than human beings," he told AFP news agency.
Spain's existing law, dating from 1985, allows abortion in cases of rape, and when there are signs of foetal abnormality.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.bbc.co.uk ...
More than a million people are said to have taken part in a march in Madrid to oppose government plans to liberalise Spain's abortion law.
Quite an upgrade from tens of thousands...
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