ROME, Italy — Some 30,000 demonstrators took to the streets of Rome on Saturday calling for an end to the “barbaric practice” of abortion and for the defense of all human life from conception to natural death.
More than 130 different pro-life groups along with scores of families, many with small children, braved the 90ºF Roman weather to take a stand for the inviolable right to life of every human person.
Today, “the voices of thousands of people rose loudly in Rome to demand an end to abortion, a barbaric and inhuman practice that suppresses the life of a helpless and innocent human being in the mother’s womb,” said Jacopo Coghe, one of the organizers of Italy’s annual pro-life march.
Human life “begins at the moment of conception and the law must recognize the legal personality and fundamental human rights of the conceived child,” Coghe said. “No society will ever be truly just, inclusive and egalitarian without respect for the universal right to be born.”
Pope Francis arrives for his weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square, at the Vatican, Wednesday, June 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
In a message read at the event, Pope Francis thanked participants for giving “public testimony in defense of human life from conception to natural death.” Those committed to the pro-life cause “move forward with courage despite all adversity,” the pontiff insisted, because “what is at stake — the absolute dignity of human life, a gift of God the Creator — is too important to be the subject of compromises or concessions.”
Coghe underscored the “devastating demographic crisis” that is causing the entire Italian social system to collapse and called on the Italian government to implement fiscal and infrastructural reforms to help young, stable families to welcome more children.
In a nod to the pro-life stance of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Coghe voiced gratitude for “the change of political direction confirmed by the European Elections and by the controversy over the reference to abortion in the final document of the G7,” while calling for still more concrete action in support for life.
“Civilization is more human the more it takes care of its most fragile, smallest, poorest, and most defenseless members,” organizers contended on the march website.
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