“Equality, Equity and Support – Throughout Life, from the First Moment” is the theme of this year’s March for Life in Romania, which has reached its 12th national edition. Since 2015, the event is also organized, with a common theme, in the neighbouring Republic of Moldova.
The 10th and 11th editions of the march were organized online during the pandemic, but this year, the Month for Life and March for Life are again organized with physical participation.
In Romania, The Month for Life is a yearly series of pro-life awareness activities extending throughout the month of Mach. The timing is symbolic, as the first month of Spring and the month when Christians celebrate the Annunciation.
The Month for Life in Romania and the Republic of Moldova culminates with the March for Life and this year is scheduled for March 26.
“It is all about equal opportunities for pregnant women in difficult situations and their preborn children,” say the representatives of Studenți pentru viață and România pentru viață associations, who organize the March for Life Bucharest.
“Ideologizing abortion hides the tragedy of pregnancy crisis, rejects the idea of support and generates inequality of opportunities,” states their press release.
“For every child, equal opportunities start before being born,” which means his or her mother received support to bring this child into the world.
“Just as the preborn child has no chance faced with the gynaecologist’s curette, a woman in pregnancy crisis has almost no chance faced with the social ‘curette’ which is the result of total lack of help, of exclusion by those she loves, of incrimination for being pregnant and thus interfering with other people’s plans and wishes.”
“Lack of support and inequality of opportunities for women in pregnancy crisis are ignored both by progressives – who promote equal opportunities only after birth, and by conservatives – who see personal success as a mere consequence of personal choices, while those around have no duty to carry the burden of other people’s choices.”
The organizers of the Bucharest March for Life add: “Equal opportunities for a conceived child mean that we do not prefer a boy to a girl. Equal opportunities for all children also mean offering prompt help to a child diagnosed before birth with a severe medical condition – and to its parents”.
For instance, social inclusion strategies for people with Down Syndrome are incomplete and inequitable since most of these children are aborted in the EU.
The press release also points to the general background of elective abortion: it’s defined by lack of options, generated by lack of external support. A study showed that 67% of US women who had an abortion did not benefit from counselling before making the decision.
Support policies for mothers and children
Each year, the Romanian March for Life movement makes public policy suggestions to decision makers, with a view to ensure support for women in pregnancy crisis and their preborn children:
- Instituting an allowance for pregnant women, granted from the 14th week of pregnancy; it shall cover her special needs during pregnancy and it can be implemented by extending the child allowance period to the last months of pregnancy;
- Instituting child allowance for women who have not been employed for 12 months before pregnancy: the amount can be the minimum wage;
- Establishing support centres for pregnant women, where they can get, upon request, free psychological counselling, coaching, social work and any other type of support they may need to overcome their pregnancy crisis;
- Training medical staff to offer additional non-medical support, addressing the needs and welfare of women who checked in the hospital to give birth;
- Amending the adoption law to include the option of starting the adoption before birth: pregnant women who feel they cannot raise the child should be able to start the adoption procedure during pregnancy and be given a certain amount of time after birth when they can change their mind and keep the child – similarly to the practice in the US, Great Britain, Australia;
- Amending the adoption law to include the possibility of open adoption, which could ease the process of giving a child for adoption or getting adoption approval from the child’s biological family – if the family cannot care for the child;
- Supporting pregnant teenagers to give birth as a first step towards learning to assume responsibility; promoting the idea that the pregnancy can be a chance for an adoptive family to offer the child a good life;
- Promoting all actors involved in the adoption process, in order to eliminate disparaging attitudes towards adopted children and parents and especially towards mothers or parents who give their children for adoption when major difficulties affect their ability to properly care for them;
- Initiating a law on placing “baby boxes” in the external walls of hospitals, where mothers who feel they cannot care for their children can safely put their babies – an emergency solution to a crisis situation; baby boxes prevent infanticide and infant abandonment and are functional in many countries of the world;
- Implementing public policies of support to allow public institutions to cooperate with organizations and support centres within the communities, allowing women in pregnancy crisis to receive the necessary support during pregnancy and after giving birth; it will allow them to feel support from society and those around.
The press release of the March for Life Romania comes with updated national and international statistics on abortion, ideas of activities during the Month for Life, ways to offer support to mothers in pregnancy crisis, information on the pregnancy crisis phenomenon and the trauma of abortion.
Marches for Life are held annually in many countries. The first was held in Washington, DC in 1974. The event is apolitical and nonconfessional but open for participation of all religions and political parties.
The Romanian March for Life was first held in 2008 at Timișoara and 2011 saw the first national edition. The organizers do not advocate for a legal ban on abortion in Romania.
See the photo gallery of the March for Life 2019 Bucharest:
Photo credit: The March for Life Romania and the Rep. of Moldova
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