March for Life events throughout Colombia draws thousands

Bogotá, Colombia, May 6, 2019 / 23:28 pm

Thousands attended pro-life marches in cities across Colombia on May 4, under the theme "I choose both lives."

March events were held in major cities, including Barranquilla, Bogotá, Medellín, Bucaramanga, Popayán, Cartagena, Villavicencio, Cali, Manizales, Pereira, and Bucaramanga.

According to organizers, the 13th annual National March for Life drew more than 500,000 in more than 60 cities across the country.

"We simply want to express our infinite gratitude because we have demonstrated that Colombia is a country that loves and defends life from conception to natural death," the promoter of the event, United for Life, said in a statement.

In an interview with ACI Prensa, CNA's Spanish language sister agency, Jesús Magaña, president of the United for Life, said the 2019 march was a "complete success because in the largest cities, the main plazas were filled" and "different politicians, candidates and members of Congress joined us."

Magaña assured that with the massive support in the streets, they will demand the Constitutional Court strike down ruling SU-096 which "promotes abortion as a 'fundamental right,' something incredible."

The Constitutional Court of Colombia decriminalized abortion on May 10, 2006 in the cases of rape, fetal deformity and danger to the life of the mother. On October 17, 2018, the court issued a new ruling in which establishing that abortions can be performed at any point throughout the pregnancy.

The demonstrations also protested euthanasia, advanced by the Constitutional Court after a 2017 ruling which asked the Congress to issue a regulation for its administration.

In a statement published April 10, the Colombian Bishops' Conference expressed its support for the march.

"It is appropriate, then, that we apply ourselves to the task of defending life, which involves welcoming it, receiving it as a sacred gift, offering it all the opportunities for it to grow and develop in dignity, personally take on this task with responsibility and commit ourselves to a life project," the prelates said.

The bishops stressed that every life is sacred "from its inception till its natural end" and warned of various threats to life including abortion, euthanasia, murder, suicide and other acts of violence.

This article was originally published by our sister agency, ACI Prensa. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.