|
On October 17th. 2009 Madrid became the capital for Life for several hours, when over 1.5 million people gathered to protest the new abortion bill that Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and the socialists want to approve in the Congress. More than 40 pro-life groups from the whole of Spain co-ordinated this march to send a message to the Spanish Government that a very large proportion of society disagreed with this new law. These same pro-life groups have opposed every abortion since 1985 when Spain first legalized abortion.
The protestors constitute 3% of Spain’s 48 million citizens. Polls show now that only 21% of Spaniards condone unrestricted abortion, while 27% seek a full abortion ban. 50% personally oppose abortion but think that abortion should be allowed in certain cases.
Sadly, a public outcry against abortion alone does not constitute reform. Many times, the pro-life movement has thought that getting public opinion on its side would be sufficient to effect real change. The new pro-life shift in popular opinion cannot beat the mathematical advantage of the abortion axis in Congress.
However, this very crisis is causing many citizens to make the defence of life and family a central issue in the upcoming Spanish elections. Already President Zapatero has become very unpopular with the Spanish people on account of his commitment to passing this abortion bill. Some analysts believe that the abortion issue will seriously hurt the Socialist Party in the next elections.
On the other hand, the other major party of Spain is the Popular Party and some of its leaders joined in the March. Many of the pro-lifers were uncomfortable with the presence of former President Jose Maria Aznar. Though he now marches along with the pro-lifers, back when he was in office neither he nor any of his party took any real action against abortion. But the fact that he was at the march, will allow pro-lifers to make definite demands for the up-coming elections.
Today, Pro-Lifers in Spain have 3 conditions that a politician must meet to be considered a “Friend of Life”. First, he must take action to get the abortion bill removed from the parliamentary debate. Second, if the bill is approved into law, he must bring an appeal to the Constitutional Court. Third, he must publicly promise to fight against abortion if elected.
For now, the POPULAR PARTY has agreed to the first and second conditions. They have no comment on the third, however.Recently, this new found power of the pro-life people of Spain showed itself, when a show of E-mails from members of “Right to Life” convinced the Popular Party to postpone a meeting scheduled for last October in Barcelona. This seems to indicate that Spanish society has grown tired of abortion, and is now capitalizing on the great power of its unity to effect change.
Spain is waking up and her hopes for the future are as big as their March in MADRID!
In Paris, Nov. 2009, The French national Assembly rejected an attempt to legalize euthanasia. This was by a vote of 326 to 202 , we are told by Hilary White. “Euthanasia is not a medical act. The right to die is not a medical act,” said Union for a Popular Movement Party deputy Jean Leonetti, author of a 2005 law on dying that promotes the use of palliative care.
The Alliance for Human Life welcomed the vote, saying that the bill “played on the ambiguity of the word ‘Dignity’ and contributed to the confusion on a difficult topic.”
Source: LifeSiteNews.com
Hilary White also alerts us to the fact that Germany is facing plummeting Birth Rate and Ageing Population. Germany, the juggernaut of the European economic scene, could be facing a critical downturn over the next five decades because of its dramatically shrinking birth rate and dropping population, a new government report has stated. The falling and ageing population will result in the eventual disintegration of Germany’s generous social welfare programmes, including old-age pensions, the report warns.
The Federal Statistics Office projected a drop in population from 82 million in 2008, the largest in the European Union, to between 65 million and 70 million. By 2060, 34% of the population will be older than 65 and 14% will be 80 or over.
“While the number of older people increases, fewer and fewer people will be of an age at which they can work,” Roderick Agiler, the head of statistics office said in the report. “This will have consequences for the social security system.”
German’s 82 million citizens made it the most populated country in the EU; France follows this with 64 million, the UK with 61 million, and Italy with 60 million. None of these countries have a birth rate that allows for the population to remain steady and all rely upon immigration to maintain population and the work force.
Source: LifeSiteNews.com
|
