Close to 530,000 French paraded in Paris and Bordeaux on October 5 against artificial insemination for lesbian couples (medically assisted procreation or PMA) and the so-called womb-for-rent system (surrogate pregnancy or GPA, in its French acronym) to favor homosexual couples. These procedures are currently illegal in France and cannot be funded by the public health system.
The protesters were called by an umbrella organization known as “La Manif pour tous” [“The Demonstration for All,” a take on the Socialist Government’s ‘Marriage for All’ –read same-sex marriage–policies] which has promoted massive protests against same-sex “marriage” over the last couple of years, French dailies such as La Croix reported.
Rumors had it that the movement was on the wane and its grassroots discouraged, but the huge demonstrations clearly showed they were nothing but wishful thinking by leftist media eager to make it fizzle.
The family public, made up of conservative Catholics in its vast majority, came out just as strongly as it had in the past, causing astonishment among many journalists, experts and sociologists accustomed to ‘laboratory reasoning’.
Unfortunately – what else is new? – the media at large reported little or nothing about these huge demonstrations diametrically opposed to the socialist left and its Sexual Revolution.
In an effort to empty out the demonstrations, Socialist Prime Minister Manuel Valls gave an interview to La Croix, the unofficial newspaper of the French Bishops Conference, promising that the controversial legislation will not be approved.
Only an accomplice or a simpleton could believe promises from a politician in dire straits, and particularly from a socialist.
Countless delegations of parents with children from all corners of France marched across Paris between the Porte Dauphine and Montparnasse neighborhoods.
The cortege was so long that it took five hours to pass by the famous dome of the Invalides!
Many banners proclaimed the reasons for the popular unease: “Stop the Tax-Bludgeoning of Families;” “A Human Being Is Not a Commodity,” and “A Woman Is Not a Baby-Making Machine.”
The demonstrations had nothing to do with parades financed by the government or some pressure group. The protesters paid out of pocket for all their transportation and other expenses, arriving by groups in rented buses, trains, or by car sharing setup through social networks.
Laurence came from Le Mans (Sarthe) with her two young sons. She never missed a demonstration and said, “Clearly, [Prime Minister] Manuel Valls’ assurances are nothing but a game. We’ve had enough words, we want facts.”
A group of students came from Fribourg, Switzerland, where they study philosophy and theology. One of them, Grégoire, 23, said he felt sick about the maneuvers aimed at “changing our morals to base it on things other than the natural order.” “Surrogate pregnancy leads to the objectification of men and can end up in eugenics,” he explained.
The demonstrators continue to demand the abrogation of the law allowing same-sex “marriage”.
In Bordeaux, between 30,000 protesters from southern regions such as Aquitaine, Midi-Pyrénées, Poitou-Charentes, Limousin and Vendée heaped criticism on Mayor Alain Juppé, who claims to stand with the “right” but said he will not abolish the same-sex “marriage” law [if elected president].
Geoffroy, 36, father of five and a resident of Pau, not far from Lourdes, showed his banner mocking that politician: “This will not be my president.”
Same-sex “marriage,” surrogate pregnancy (GPA)’, ‘medically assisted procreation (PMA), gender ideology and other egalitarian aberrations have eventually formed a pack of morally perverse procedures directed against the very purpose of the family and repudiated by the demonstrators.
For the vast majority of those present, the demonstration transcends the positions of political parties, including those now rising on their claim of being defenders of the family. “We cannot rent out the family body,” insisted Jean-Baptiste de Scorraille, mayor of a district in Toulouse.
For Constance, 19, from Bayonne, “it is important to show, with these demonstrations, that the family and youth are against this world that seeks the commoditization of children.”