This Saturday, Madrid became the Capital of Life for a couple 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.
Many aspects make this march remarkable. The first is the unity displayed. More than 40 pro-life groups from the whole of Spain coordinated this march to send a message to the government that a very large portion of society disagreed with this new law, just as they had opposed every abortion since 1985, when the previous socialist administration first legalized abortion in Spain.
Secondly, it sends a strong message that public opinion is firmly against abortion. The 1.5 million protesters represent more than 3% of Spain’s 48 million citizens, all gathered in the capital to make a stand for Life. Combining this with the results of a poll by the Spanish Family Forum, where only 2l% of Spaniards condone unrestricted abortion, while 27% seek a full abortion ban, with 50% opposed to abortion but think it should be allowed in certain cases, reinforces the findings of PRI’s own public opinion studies: the media battle has been lost by President Zapatero and his Socialist Party.
But this second aspect could lead us into error. Many times we in the pro-life movement have thought that getting public opinion on our side would be sufficient to effect real change. This is not the case. Only 24 hours after the march in Madrid finished, representatives of the Socialist Party in Congress spoke of continuing with the bill, regardless. And they can do it, too. They have a majority thanks to an alliance with small portions of the left who have their own interest in the abortion bill. This new pro-life shift in popular opinion can’t heat the mathematical advantage of the abortion allies in Congress.
However, this situation is causing many Spaniards to make the defense of life and family a central issue in the upcoming elections, and will not content themselves with simply voting for the “lesser evil.” The next two and a half years leading up to the elections will definitely he a defining issue for politicians. 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.
This issue connects us to the other major party of Spain, the Popular Party. Some of its leaders joined in the march. Many of the pro-lifers were uncomfortable with the presence of former President José Maria Aznar. Though he now marches with pro-lifers, back when he was in office, neither he nor anyone in his party took real action against abortion. However, in the final analysis, his fellow marchers were positive about his attendance, for his claim to be pro-life allows pro-lifers to make definite demands for the upcoming election, and they form a large majority of the Spanish people.
Pro-lifers in Spain now have three conditions that a politician must meet to be considered a “‘Friend of Life.” First, they must take action to get the abortion bill removed from parliamentary debate. Second, if the bill is approved into law, they must bring an appeal to the Constitutional Court. Third, they must publicly promise to fight against abortion if elected.
For now, the Popular Party has agreed to the first and second conditions. On the third, however, they haven’t said anything so far. However, pro-life groups now know their strength, given their massive turnout at the march, and they are going to make their demands heard in the next election.
This newfound power of the pro-life people of Spain showed itself recently, when a slew of e-mails from members of “Right to Life,” a key pro-life organization in Spain, convinced the Popular Party to postpone a meeting scheduled for October 17 in Barcelona. All of this indicates that Spanish society has grown tired of abortion, and is now capitalizing on its great power as a unit to effect change.
Along these lines and at the request of the Spanish Family Forum and the National Association of Parents in Catholic Schools, on October 16 the Efrat Institute published an informative piece called “The Abortion Business in Spain,” (available at http://www.hazteoir.org/files/Informe_el%20negocio%20del%20aborto%20en%20Espa%C3%Bla.pdf) revealing that the abortion industry had evaded paying some 50 million euros in taxes since 2007. (The Efrat Institute is a consulting and research organization concerned with the activities of public life.) According to David del Fresno, president of Efrat: “The ‘abortion industry’ is the only industry that has public evidence of earning up to twice what they declare on their taxes without the Treasury at least opening an investigation. It’s unusual. If a normal citizen shows any disproportion between his income and his possessions, a Treasury investigator starts an audit immediately. The abortion clinics seem to be immune to this logic.”
The pro-lite and pro-family groups are demanding that the Treasury Minister investigate the 80 abortion registered clinics in order uncover and end the fraud. Should she fail to open these investigations, it would be yet another black mark against the Socialist government on the day of elections.
Much has been said about this event, especially in the
pro-socialist media in Spain. But as always we believe that a picture
is worth a thousand words. So we invite you to
visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2XLUZ17DyE&feature=player_embedded
to watch the video and make your own conclusions. Spain is waking up
and her hopes for the future are as big as this march in Madrid.
