Commercial presentation Updated: 04/06/2024 15:30 Issued: 04/06/2024 15:23
Illustration photo – March for Life organized by the Movement for Life. It is to express support for women and families unexpectedly expecting a child, April 6, 2024, Prague. CTK/Vondrouš Roman
Prague – This year, hundreds of people took part in the announced March for Life from Hradčany to Wenceslas Square in Prague in support of better conditions for women who unexpectedly became pregnant. Opponents of the event this year blocked the way over the Legií bridge, and even the firemen heading to the Malá Strana did not cross it. The police diverted the route of the march through the neighboring Jiráská Bridge, and did not allow some of the activists from the Legion Bridge to leave until the march was dissolved. The police arrested five people for disobeying the summons, police spokesman Richard Hrdina told ČTK.
The opponents were repeatedly asked to leave the bridge over which the procession of the duly announced assembly was supposed to pass. However, they did not obey the calls and, according to the police spokesman, were committing an illegal act. “After some time, we started identifying all the participants and we will report them to the relevant administrative authority for disobeying the call,” he said. He added that there are several hundred of them.
Opponents of the march blocked the Bridge of Legions for about 2.5 hours. Firefighters on the X network they wrote that they could not drive to the intervention. “Our unit was blocked on the way to the intervention in Malá Strana. It was blocked by the participants of the protests on the Legion bridge. The unit had to choose an alternative route and the journey to the case was thus extended by several minutes,” they said.
According to the police, two of the protesters jumped off the bridge during the blockade, and the river police went to the scene. The police later secured them, as well as three others from the front of the crowd. At first, the police did not allow tourists and passers-by to cross the bridge, the anti-conflict teams had to deal with the displeasure with this, and later they started allowing pedestrians.
Organizers of the protest in the published Facebook events they stated that “clerofascists from the Movement for Life, who cynically protect themselves with their lives, but in reality are concerned with restricting reproductive rights and promoting an ultra-conservative agenda in public space” will pass through Prague.
The Movement for Life event began with a morning mass for unborn children in St. Vitus Cathedral. The movement brings together opponents of abortion and supporters of the traditional family, and opposes, for example, homosexual unions. In recent years, the movement has been organizing the We Don’t Judge, We Help campaign aimed at women who are expecting a child unplanned.
“The pro-life movement does not defend the normal world and the family, but a fringe authoritarian ideology, we are pro-life,” said one of the speakers at the protest rally. Others spoke about the Polish ban on abortion, they don’t want the same in the Czech Republic, and drew attention to misinformation about abortion. Poland is a country with a strong Catholic tradition Abortions are only allowed in cases of rape or incest or if the mother’s life is in danger.
The organizers ended the march at approximately 4:30 p.m., shortly after they arrived at Wenceslas Square. Some opponents also reached Wenceslas Square, where the police urged them not to disturb the duly reported assembly. Archbishop Jan Graubner arrived at the place as well as at the beginning of the march. Before the formal end of the march, the gathering sang the St. Wenceslas hymn and the anthem, and thanked the police for their cooperation. Opponents watched from the sidelines and disrupted the speeches with noise.
Cardinal Dominik Duka thanked the participants of the march for their courage in Hradčanské náměstí. “Democracy cannot exist without piety, decency, tolerance and mutual dialogue,” he said, adding that the participants of the march should convey this to those who confuse democracy with something else.
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