A pro-life ad at a bus stop in Spain. / ACDP

Madrid, Spain, Mar 28, 2022 / 15:00 pm (CNA).

Thousands of people participated in the March for Life held Sunday in Madrid. The march terminated at the Plaza de Cibeles, where a stage was set up for the main event.

The organizers explained that the purpose of the march was to emphasize that “life must be cared for from conception until natural death and that just laws must be passed.”

A manifesto was read at the March 27 event stating that “every human being has the right to life and to be treated as he deserves because of his dignity, from conception to natural death.”

The organizers also stressed that with demonstrations like this they intend to “show the greatness of the culture of life, which is generous, welcoming, constructive, joyful, heals wounds and doesn’t give up.” 

They also expressed their opposition to “all laws and practices that attack human life as well as their financing and ideological imposition.”

The manifesto demanded that “all the horrors, interests and all the strategies used by the abominable culture of death be told.”

“We demand that they stop deceiving us, that women, mothers and fathers of these children not be tortured, and that our society not be changed and that our families be protected,” the manifesto declared. 

Pro-life doctors stressed that healthcare professionals are “to save lives and not to take them” and encouraged healthcare workers to “fight for the lives of their patients and that medical advances” reach everyone without exception.”

Testimonies were given at the main event in the Plaza de Cibeles, especially focusing on opposition to the recently approved euthanasia law and the upcoming reform of the abortion law which will force doctors to perform abortions on minors. 

Dr. Manuel Martínez Sellés, the president of the Madrid College of Physicians, stressed that all doctors have the “right to conscientious objection” and that the medical code of ethics is “particularly strict when it comes to defending life.”

The doctor also stressed that “the human being is an end in himself, from conception to death, and the doctor is obliged in any of his actions to safeguard the well being of the people who are under his care.” 

Martínez-Sellés also noted that the medical code of ethics explicitly prohibits euthanasia since it specifically says that the doctor shall never intentionally cause the death of his patients, not even at their express request and therefore demanded that “we really take care of the sick, we shouldn’t kill them.”

Regarding recent laws passed in Spain that force doctors to practice euthanasia and abortion, Martínez-Sellés said, “they can’t force us because our conscientious objection is guaranteed by the Constitution of Spain and in the European Charter of fundamental rights.

“We doctors ask that they allow us to care for, palliate, and serve” our patients. “We dedicate ourselves to that and not to killing,” the president of the Madrid College of Physicians emphasized.

The Bocanera family also gave their testimony at the March for Life. They have two biological daughters and for 14 years they have been a foster family for children with disabilities, in addition to being part of an emergency foster care program for children between 0 and 3 years old. Over the years they have taken in four children with different needs.

“We are grateful to the mothers of these four children who decided to stand up for the lives of their children with disabilities, even though they seemed destined to not be in this world,” the Bocanera family said.

“We thank these mothers who dared to have their children even though they couldn’t take care of them, and put them in foster care so that others, so that we, could take care of them and learn from them every day,”  they added.

The last testimony was given by Alina, a young Ukrainian who has lived in Spain for years and participates in the rescue efforts in front of abortion facilities. She stressed that “women are pressured to abort, so they must be offered help and support.”

“They call it the right to abort, but in reality we mothers want the right to have help to raise our children,” stressed the young Ukrainian, who also addressed a message to women who have already had an abortion, asking them to “join the pro-life movement to save babies and give the support that you weren’t able to receive”.

The event ended with a minute of silence for unborn children, the victims of abortion.

During those 60 seconds, an ultrasound was performed on a pregnant mother, a Ukrainian woman who recently arrived in Spain fleeing the war in her country, and the heartbeat of the unborn child could be heard by the march participants.