An Italian pro-life group attempted to share Live Action’s “Baby Olivia” video in a public square, only to have the demonstration attacked by abortion activists intent on shutting down the presentation.
Pro Vita & Famiglia (Pro-Life and Family) said in a press release that the group had set up a screen in the Piazza XX Settembre in Bologna on July 19th to show the video, which depicts life in the womb through groundbreaking animation and medical expertise. Much of the information in the video is sourced from the Endowment for Human Development (EHD), a self-described “nonprofit organization dedicated to improving health science education and public health” that is “committed to neutrality regarding all controversial bioethical issues.” Their award-winning prenatal development DVD, which uses the same milestones and timelines for prenatal development as those featured in “Baby Olivia,” is distributed by National Geographic.
But the presentation was mobbed by pro-abortion protesters, which included several city councilors: Giulia Bernagozzi and Mery De Martino of the Democratic Party, and Detjon Begaj of the Civic Coalition. “At first, the counter-demonstrators began to disturb the screening by shouting insults like “bastards,” “pieces of s*t,” “fuck you” through a megaphone, then approached the stage, throwing flyers and condoms at those present and even attempting to tamper with the power cables of the sound system, so much so that the police were deployed to protect the stage and the Pro Vita & Famiglia demonstrators,” the press release said.
La cultura rende liberi.
L’ignoranza rende schiavi.E loro sono schiavi di una ideologia cieca, pericolosa, che ignora ogni verità obiettiva e scientifica per continuare a indottrinare le menti a suon di urla, violenza e prepotenza.
Lo specchietto per le allodole che usano è… pic.twitter.com/f8G7MWYpFu
— Pro Vita & Famiglia (@ProVitaFamiglia) July 20, 2024
“Culture sets you free. Ignorance makes slaves. And they are slaves to a blind, dangerous ideology that ignores every objective and scientific truth to continue indoctrinating minds to the sounds of screams, violence, and arrogance,” the group wrote on social media, adding, “They should learn that freedom is not doing what you want at the disposal of others, true freedom is having the right to do what you need. The right that yesterday, in Bologna, was taken away by sabotaging the projection of the ‘Baby Olivia’ video, preventing people from approaching because they are afraid of their violence, by monopolizing a public square. You are not free, you are slaves to your own hate.”
The offices of Pro Vita & Famiglia have come under attack multiple times in recent months, with 13 acts of vandalism taking place in the last three years alone. Last year, the organization was attacked with a Molotov cocktail during a rally for the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. Two hundred people broke off from the march, and in addition to the Molotov cocktail, the building was graffitied. Despite the presence of law enforcement, pro-abortion protesters threw bottles, stones, and smoke grenades, knocked down cameras, and tried to set the building on fire. In every instance, the group has vowed to keep fighting for life, and the same has happened for Baby Olivia, which they said they are working to have placed in local schools.
“The fact that social centers, feminist groups, and left-wing city councilors have attempted to disturb, prevent and sabotage the holding of a demonstration regularly authorized by the authorities is of unprecedented gravity, especially since the sole intent of our event was to reiterate the pure and simple scientific truth about the origin and development of human life in the mother’s womb, which begins with conception,” Jacopo Coghe, a spokesman for the group, said in the press release.
“We will not be intimidated by these violent and anti-democratic methods, and we will continue to bring the Baby Olivia video to the main Italian squares: the next appointment will be Friday 26 July in Ancona,” he added. “We also believe that scientific information is fundamental and essential to be present in Italian schools, which is why we have also launched a petition addressed to the Ministry of Education asking for the inclusion in the school science programs of the teaching of scientific evidence on the origin of human life, and on the development of the embryo and fetus during pregnancy, to increase the knowledge of pupils and students.”
