Paris March for Life Crowds Underreported by Media
French media largely ignored the March for Life, and those who reported about it underestimated the number of participants, saying there were "more than a thousand" marchers. Police estimated 8,500 participants, while organizers reported that over 40,000 people marched.
This year’s slogan, “From the shadows to the light,” was illustrated by the youth and enthusiasm of the crowd in the face of somber skies.
The March owed at least part of its success to the urgency of the current situation in France, where on January 22nd the government launched a public consultation with a view to revising France’s bioethics laws. Among a far-ranging series of themes, Emmanuel Macron’s administration is working to make assisted procreation available to homosexual couples. Artificial fertilization for lesbians will be under discussion and also extended use of embryos for research, assisted suicide, euthanasia and organ donorship. Surrogate motherhood, on the other hand, has been formally rejected by the government – but will still be part of the debate. Many fear an unprecedented commodification of the human body and the human embryo.
The March in itself was, as it has been since its first edition some 15 years ago, a good-natured and peaceful event. It was briefly disturbed by half a dozen “Femen” who painted red tank tops on their bare torsos and went around asking for sperm donations in the name of “Christian charity for lesbians.”
Sources: Kath.net, Life Site News (photo credit), and Breitbart