On Sunday, roughly 50,000 people from across Slovakia marched in the streets of Bratislava to support the protection of human life. The March for Life was the culmination of a series of similar events which were initiated on Friday. The organisers criticized the fact that abortions in the country are currently legal until the 12th week of pregnancy or even longer if the child has a disability.
"The people want a change to take place. Some senior public officials said that society does not demand such a change and that the law which allows the killing of unborn children is sufficient. We do not think so and that's one of the reasons why we came here to say that the current status is bad. We want to change it," said the organisers, who hold the belief that the march gave them a strong mandate.
"There are people who have come here to show that they care about protecting the life of every single human, even unborn children," stated the spokesperson of the march Patrik Daniška, adding that this has been the third time the march took place in Slovakia.
As the TASR press agency wrote, the main figures behind the event are the Slovak Bishop's Conference and NGO Kanet. Several opposition and coalition parties publicly supported the event, among them Slovak National Party, Ordinary People Party, We Are Family and Christian Democrats.
According to the data of the National Centre for Healthcare Information, last year a total of 13, 924 abortions were carried out on women with permanent residency in Slovakia, which is a 4.1% decrease year on year. Less than half of them (43.3%) were abortions performed at the request of the woman. Their number has been constantly decreasing every year since 1997. Four proposals to introduce stricter rules for abortions are to be discussed in parliament this autumn, ranging from reducing the period for legal abortions to 8 weeks to banning it completely.
