A Thousand Sri-Lankan Female Tea-Plantation Workers March Against Abortion

By Gudrun Schultz
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka, March 17, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) –

Women workers on tea-plantations left their jobs for a day to march in protest against abortion on International Women’s Day March 8.
Nearly a thousand women carrying placards saying “women are not slaves” and “stop abortion” marched through the Hatton area of central Sri Lanka, performing a street play along the way about the harm caused by abortion.
Fr. George Sigamani, of the Kandy diocese, coordinated the protest. Fr. Sigamani is head of the justice, peace, human development and human rights apostolate for the diocese. He told UCA News there have been hundreds of illegal abortions in the area.
”One of the major issues is the number of abortions taking place,” he said. Abortion is illegal in Sri Lanka unless the mother’s life is in danger. Fr. Sigamani said most of the abortions take place because the pregnancy occurred outside of marriage, or because the woman’s husband demanded that she have an abortion...

(Continue article by clicking on title)