Pro-lifers exercising peaceful prayer in Europe continue to be persecuted — this time, in Spain.
ACI Prensa reports that the Government Delegation (public administration) in Madrid sent 20 riot police officers to prevent a group of 10 pro-life youth from praying the rosary in front of Dator, an abortion facility. A pro-life physician, Dr. Jesús Poveda, was also arrested for sitting peacefully in front of the facility.
Poveda did not appear to be blocking the doors to the facility, but police ordered him to move anyway. When he refused, he was arrested, placed in a patrol car, and taken to the police station.
#SantosInocentes | La Policía Nacional detiene a Jesús Poveda, médico provida, que permanecía pacíficamente sentado ante la entrada del abortorio Dator pic.twitter.com/hf6PdCbuD1
— La Gaceta de la Iberosfera (@gaceta_es) December 28, 2023
Poveda carries out this act of “passive resistance” just one day each year: the Feast of the Holy Innocents, which is celebrated on December 28th. Other pro-lifers arranged for photos of preborn children to be placed on the doors of abortion facilities around Barcelona and Madrid, along with messages like “He is a holy innocent” and “Are you going to look the other way?”
As the group of pro-lifers prayed, a smaller group of counter-protesters arrived, carrying signs like “Keep your rosaries off our ovaries” and “I too aborted. So what!” They also played loud music to drown out the prayers of the pro-life demonstrators.
🔴 Acción antiabortista en todos los abortorios de Barcelona
Con motivo del día de los Santos Inocentes los abortorios de la ciudad de Barcelona han amanecido con carteles y pintadas denunciando el asesinato de niños inocentes. pic.twitter.com/ZUOMk6zViX
— Jaume Vives Vives (@JaumeVivesVives) December 28, 2023
READ: ‘Thoughtcrime’: Pro-life woman arrested for silently praying near UK abortion facility
The police officers made the pro-life group move away from the facility, which they did before getting onto their knees and continuing to pray the rosary. They continued to be harassed by police, however, who followed them around and wouldn’t let them move freely about the space. One man was searched by the police and made to empty his pockets.
Politicians in Spain voted last year to criminalize the so-called “harassment” of women trying to enter abortion facilities. Penalties could include jail time of up to a year. Though prayer was not mentioned, the bill described “harassment” as “approaching women with photographs, model fetuses, and proclamations against abortion … the objective is for the women to change their decision through coercion, intimidation, and harassment.”
In the United Kingdom, however, prayer has been criminalized — even silent prayer — with numerous pro-life advocates arrested merely for standing near an abortion facility and praying silently to themselves. Earlier this month, a court ruled that such discrimination can stand, as even silent prayer can be considered “detrimental” to the so-called “right” of abortion.
