A pro-life rally in Chile has attracted support from over 100,000 people.
The “Celebrate Life” march in Santiago took place in protest at proposals to end the country’s long-standing laws to protect the unborn.
The proposed changes call for abortion to be legalised in certain circumstances, including cases of rape or where the child is believed to have a condition deemed to be “incompatible with life”.
Legal process
The legislation passed Chile’s lower house of Congress in March but requires Senate approval before it can come into law.
The rally’s pro-life leaders warned that any candidate or party which supports the abortion legislation will not receive their support in the coming election.
They particularly targeted the Christian Democratic Party, part of the governing coalition, and whose president, Carolina Goic, chairs the Senate Health Committee.
Destruction
However, on Tuesday Senator Goic was one of three senators in the five-strong committee who voted to approve the plans to move onto the next stage of the legislative process.
Speaking before the Health Committee’s decision, Elizabeth Bunster from the pro-life organisation Chile es Vida said: “The Christian Democrats need to understand that if they don’t stop this legislation, they will be responsible for the resulting deaths of the innocent, the suffering for women and the destruction which follows in abortion’s path”.
“We do not want to follow the other countries of the world which have abandoned the protection of the weakest members of the human family,” she said.