rapidly declining, BosNewsLife established Friday, December 29.
An estimated one thousand people activists gathered on Budapest’s St. Gellert Square, named after a bishop, to stage a ‘silent’ march against abortion and to "mourn" the victims.
The "March of Life for the Future" started with an ecumenical mass celebrated by Catholic Bishop Laszlo Biro, organizers said in a statement released by Hungarian News Agency MTI.
The silent crowd, carrying white crosses decorated with roses, marched to the gothic parliament building from where they threw hundreds of roses into the river in memory of what they said were "the unborn victims of abortion."
SIX MILLION FETUSES
Organizers said over six million fetuses "had fallen victim" to induced abortions since the procedures were legalized by the Communist regime on June 4, 1956.
The mourners asked obstetricians to follow the example of 21 hospitals and clinics who have reportedly refused to carry out abortions.
Hungary’s pro-life movement began operations following the collapse of Communism and hopes to impact other Eastern European nations. Like Hungary, several former East Block nations have declining populations, in part because of abortions.
MORE ABORTIONS ELSEWHERE
In neighboring Ukraine abortion is often used as an anticonception method or to generate money.
This month, news emerged that mothers from the city of Ukrainian city of Kharkiv were talked into late-term abortions allegedly for the trade in stem cells and organs. In addition healthy babies were allegedly taken by maternity staff which apparently killed them to sell stem cells and organs.
In 2003 local authorities reportedly agreed to exhume around 30 bodies of fetuses and full-term babies from a cemetery used by maternity hospital number six.
VIDEO FOOTAGE SHOWN
Video footage showed organs, including brains, have been stripped – and some bodies dismembered. In its report, the Council of Europe said there was "a general culture of trafficking of children snatched at birth, and a wall of silence from hospital staff upwards over their fate."
Ukrainian authorities claim they have launched an investigation, but there has been international concern that corruption among key-officials will make it difficult to catch those responsible for crimes. (With BosNewsLife Research and reports from the region).
