Italy Abortion Law: Protesters March In Rome Against Italian Abortion Laws

ROME -- A few thousand people opposed to Italy's 1978 law allowing abortion have marched through the Italian capital in a protest drawing people from around the world, including Americans and Poles.

Nuns, priests and lay people marched in Rome Sunday from the Colosseum to Castel Sant'Angelo, a landmark near the Vatican.

In Italy, abortion on demand is legal through to the end of the third month of pregnancy.

After a long battle between secular forces and the church, voters upheld the law in a 1981 referendum. There is no major momentum now to rescind the law.

Some in the Mother's Day march pushed babies in strollers. One American participant, the Rev. Dominick Holtz, from St. Louis, Missouri, said the march united people from around the world against legalized abortion.

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Comments

[MANX38]

07:21 PM on 01/14/2013

Meddling religious noodniks want everyone to buy into their hypocritical bs. They are so worried about unborn babies but don't seem to have a problem keeping silent when thousands are dying in wars,poverty,oppressive nations. You care so much then sell the Vatican and disperse the money to the poor

[Jada Stone]

10:30 AM on 07/28/2012

The Church doesn't favor birth control; it only seeks control. I would have preferred to have seen thousands marching in the streets of Rome protesting the abuse by church officials of those already born! BTW, how was abortion legalized right in the Vatican's backyard?

[Andrew Stone11]

08:20 AM on 05/27/2012

They are doin what they know is right. All these comments from people supporting abortion sound as though they are trying to convince themselves. The truth is there is nothing more unnatural or repulsive than abortion.

[Stanley Seay]

04:06 PM on 05/14/2012

What could possibly be more ironic given that abortion is in the bible? Not only is abortion in the bible, but it's the priests that perform the procedure.

People completely clueless about their hypocrisy... not really a surprise given that the vast majority haven't even bothered to read their bible beyond the carefully cherry picked passages that suite their own desires.

[pinkibus]

01:30 AM on 05/14/2012

Funny thing how not one of those placards carries the face of a child who just starved to death (25,000 @ day). Neither do yu see a picture of a prisoner or a person being executed. No shot of the child who has been raped or tortured or simply left. If you want to see just happy healthy babies and children and adults then you have to embrace birth control and abortion. When you read a medical book on how to repair the damage done to a baby who has been raped then you realize how stupid the church is re birth control and abortion. Or maybe they feel the priests would suffer without an ongoiing source of nubile boys.

[Andrew Stone11]

08:12 AM on 05/27/2012

You are an idiot

[comer23]

01:18 AM on 05/14/2012

Maybe if the Church taught safe-sex they wouldn't be protesting the abortion law. It's a fact that condoms and birth control prevents unwanted babies. They should have a march against priests raping and molesting boys. Maybe then the Church would be taken seriously.

[hcwcars]

12:33 AM on 05/14/2012

The truth is abortion will always be legal for the rich

they get a two week vacation somewhere.

And the poor might bleed to death in a back ally where they live at.

[Edison Saldano]

11:56 PM on 05/13/2012

Are these people stupid .

[pinkibus]

01:14 AM on 05/14/2012

Yes

[boomerboy]

10:13 PM on 05/13/2012

whatever you do.....don't inform people the how-to of avoiding unwanted pregnancy!

[Robert Frano]

04:56 PM on 05/13/2012

Re: “…Nuns, priests and lay people marched in Rome Sunday, etc...
In Italy, abortion on demand is legal to the end of 3 months...etc. After a long battle between secular forces / the church, voters upheld the law in a 1981 referendum...”

How grimly-hilarious!
We remember '2-Spanish-priests who spent $8,000+ on motivating local gangsters to kill ‘em', after they chickened out of a suicidal cliff-leap, 2-3-months ago, right?
Seems that...
by following Ratzinger's 'no-condoms' dogma, they became…terminally ill!

Who-the-hell are these gold-medal-refugees from the Special Olympics, (‘elastic-morality’ decathlon), who refuse to protect their child-sex-assault-survivors, via condoms? These ‘nuns & priests, etc.’, ALWAYS remind me of that (original) Star-Trek episode…

Kirk - McCoy - Spock - Enterpra, (using the ‘phonetic’ Klingon-language), are lured to a planet with so many hominidea, they’re forced to wear lubricated rubber suits, to squeeze past!
In 1 scean, Kirk & the world-president’s daughter are all by themselves; she notes: “…a local would kill for this much free-space".
Unknown to Kirk…
She's acquiring an S.T.D.-transmitted - virus, (by stealth), to which her society has NO natural immunity!
A form of 'natural' birth-control, by ‘decimation’…like the Roman army’s anti-cowardice-discipline...
Reflecting a society vehemently anti-abortion / 'artificial’ b-control!

Reminds me of…EARTH, plus a century or two!
...If ‘Romney-W.Jeffs-Scott.-’50-To-Life’ Roeder-J.Ratzinger-M.Atta and their Ferengi-Talibanic-Evangelical-accomplices had / have their way...

[gerorem]

10:53 PM on 05/13/2012

It's a rant about something. Not sure what.

[Galician]

04:27 PM on 05/13/2012

I'd love to see those nuns also in a demonstration against paedophilia!!

[LMPE]

03:57 PM on 05/13/2012

Calling Rick Santorum! You just found your soul mates!

[John Popper]

10:00 PM on 05/26/2012

Rick Santorum is Catholic...

[altheschrod]

03:35 PM on 05/13/2012

Christian believers in biblical times kept their faith while living in hostile lands. In a better world, abortion wouldn't be necessary, but we are humans; prone to mistakes and living in a nation with a secular gov't, as is Italy. Laws good for EVERYONE--not just conservative Christians-- must be enforced, and that includes having abortion remain legal.

[ElCojonuo]

02:21 PM on 05/13/2012

It's like a Latin American Politician once told me, ' Protests are good, they let anger and stress out '.
Managing them is both an Art and a Science.

[letsgetbad44]

01:38 PM on 05/13/2012

Wow, the Catholic Haters our out today. I'd hate to be part of your family, then again, I probably wouldn't have been born if it was up to you!

[BamaRainbow]

02:13 PM on 05/13/2012

Well, when YOU have that unwanted pregnancy, then you can decide what YOU want to do with it. (I'm not really seeing all those "Catholic haters" in the comments. But I'm sure they're glad you're not part of their family.)

[SylvreWolfe]

03:49 PM on 05/13/2012

Well, tell the Catholics to quit hating on women and gays and maybe their lives would be better.

[shanefox]

10:14 PM on 05/13/2012

For some cults/sects of the church (lower-case "c") tolerance is the greatest sin. Some say that they love the sinner but hate the sin. Sounds like "conditional love" to me. Live and think our way or be ostracized as a sinner, the lowest of scum.

Are those people carrying the plackards going to pay for the child's needs after birth? No, force the pregnancy to term and they're outta there. Besides, isn't a woman's only purpose as "breeding stock?"

The "Supreme Inquisition" which murdered an awful lot of "witches" in the name of YHWH. A "witch" was defined as a woman who had an independent thought. Same, same for the evil "heretics." Kill the "heretics" then steal their property and wealth. Gotta have those gold threads for the ecclesiactial hierarchy's "gay" apparel?

Giordano Bruno was murdered by fire for this simple question: "If the stars are Suns and there are planets like ours going around those Suns would there be people like us on those planets?"

Don't forget Ptolemy's "...the earth is the center of the Universe."

Oh, the Inquisition?

It's still around and known as "The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith." And you'll never guess who was the head of that deax de machina of the Inquisition before his elevation to top dog of the world's smallest country?

Seven billion and growing, keep up the good work guys...

[Andrew Stone11]

08:29 AM on 05/27/2012

Yes, let's tell Catholics to quit hatin on people. Then their lives will get better. Good comment. One that is likely to improve the lives of both Catholics and the people they hatin on