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Over 50,000 march for life in Slovakia, ahead of a parliamentary debate on abortion

Tens of thousands of pro-life campaigners marched in Slovakia’s capital on Sunday calling on the country’s leaders to protect unborn babies.

Over 50,000 people gathered in the streets of Bratislava for The National March for Life ahead of a parliamentary debate on abortion restriction scheduled this month.

Campaigners carried signs saying: “a human is human regardless of size” and “who kills an unborn child kills the future of the nation”.

“The life of every human is invaluable, therefore it needs to be protected from conception until natural death,” one of the organizers said.

In Slovakia, abortions are permitted without restriction up until 12 weeks gestation. After twelve weeks, a group of physicians can approve an abortion in cases where the life of the mother is at risk or the unborn child is thought to be disabled.

MPs want to protect unborn babies from abortion by reducing the permissible time limit to 6-8 weeks or banning it altogether, with the country’s parliament due to discuss the proposed protections later this month.

The ruling parties — the social democrat party Smer and the junior Slovak National Party have not indicated any support.

Abortion and the right to life are likely to be key campaign issues as Slovakia’s political parties gear up for the February 2020 general election.

The number of abortions in the country, with a population of 5.4 million, has been decreasing.

In 1997 more than 20,000 women chose to have an abortion, last year this number had decreased to 7,350, according to Slovakia’s Statistical Office.

Spokesperson for Right To Life UK, Catherine Robinson said:

“Pro-life marches continue to attract millions of people across Europe and the rest of the world. We hope that those working in law and government take note of the growing number of voices speaking up for life and enact positive legislation that will protect women and unborn babies”.

Dear reader,

You may be surprised to learn that our 24-week abortion time limit is out of line with the majority of European Union countries, where the most common time limit for abortion on demand or on broad social grounds is 12 weeks gestation.

The latest guidance from the British Association of Perinatal Medicine enables doctors to intervene to save premature babies from 22 weeks. The latest research indicates that a significant number of babies born at 22 weeks gestation can survive outside the womb, and this number increases with proactive perinatal care.

This leaves a real contradiction in British law. In one room of a hospital, doctors could be working to save a baby born alive at 23 weeks whilst, in another room of that same hospital, a doctor could perform an abortion that would end the life of a baby at the same age.

The majority of the British population support reducing the time limit. Polling has shown that 70% of British women favour a reduction in the time limit from 24 weeks to 20 weeks or below.

Please click the button below to sign the petition to the Prime Minister, asking him to do everything in his power to reduce the abortion time limit.