This Saturday, September 16, the so-called "March for Life" is to take place in Cologne for the first time. The "March for Life" is a demonstration of Christian fundamentalists in collaboration with supposedly "more moderate" church institutions in which also politicians and supporters of the CDU and AfD to fascists participate. The aim of this march, which is organized by the so-called "Federal Association Right to Life" ("Bundesverband Lebensrecht"), is to ban by law all possibilities for women to have an abortion. In addition, they are also for a complete ban on pre-implantation diagnostics and assisted dying. According to these reactionaries, the life of the child begins with the sexual act of procreation or the fertilization of the egg. An abortion after this point would then be murder.From a materialistic and scientific point of view this is not tenable, an embryo is first of all only one thing and that is a cluster of cells which can develop into a human being or not.

The "March for Life" and similar events by Christian fundamentalists and other anti-feminist, patriarchal associations have repeatedly taken place in Berlin, Münster and Freiburg, but also in neighboring Austria and Switzerland. On this 16 September there is beside the demonstration in Cologne, at the same time also one in Berlin which is organized likewise by the "Federal Association Right to Life". At the same time, there will also be a demonstration in Zurich under the motto "March for Life".

Those who now think that this demonstration is a fringe event of small sects and splinter groups are wrong. In addition to the CDU Cologne and the CDU-affiliated grouping "Christian Democrats for Life", the German Bishops' Conference, the association of all German Roman Catholic bishops, is also calling for this reactionary march against the bodily self-determination of women and is even sending a greeting. And also from Cologne itself comes church support for the reactionaries and so the diocese of Cologne supports the march again this year. The AfD is also mobilizing for the march with its party grouping "Christians in the AfD". The participation of churches, conservatives and right-wing forces is nothing new. Since the middle of the last decade, even chairmen of the CDU/CSU federal parliamentary group such as Volker Kauder or CDU youngster Philipp Amthor have sent greetings to the demonstrations on several occasions. The AfD member of the European Parliament Beatrix von Storch was also represented at the "march" several times and even carried the front banner. In 2014, even Pope Francis himself sent greetings. In addition to these "serious" bigwigs from the church and bourgeois parties, the spectrum of participants also includes associations such as the so-called Pius Brotherhood, an ultra-reactionary, traditionalist, Catholic priests' association to which the Catholic Church is too modern. According to the Pius Brothers, the declared enemies of Christianity are Jews, communists and freemasons. On the other hand, fascists like Franco are praised by them. In the world view of this association women are born to be "helpers" of men and they want to let homosexual people be persecuted according to the example of German fascism.

This list could go on forever. And it shows that even if the various Christian fundamentalists, churches, conservative party politicians and ultra-reactionaries are not one movement with one direction, they have unity when it comes to curtailing women's right to self-determination over their own bodies and the role of women in society and propagating the ideal of the bourgeois, patriarchal nuclear family.

They are not alone in this, because even though the "Traffic Light Coalition" (the current government is comprised of a "green", a "yellow" and a "red" party) has lifted the so-called "advertising ban" on abortions, abortion in Germany still falls under the Criminal Code. And the women who nevertheless struggle through the arduous and burdensome bureaucratic jungle to have an abortion often face the challenge that not enough doctors perform such treatments.

However, these reactionary events do not take place without the resistance of the masses, especially women. For years, large counter-demonstrations have taken place against the various Marches for Life and their branch events, which are attended by thousands. There are also always blockades and combative actions or, as in Switzerland, fights against the police.

And also in Cologne, with "Pro Choice Cologne", an alliance of feminist groups of different colors and tendencies has come together to disrupt and prevent the "March for Life" wherever possible. Also in the run-up to Saturday there have already been actions in Cologne. Thus on Indymedia an action was published, which reminds of the fact that real children are not well in the hands of churches and fundamentalist Christians, by attacking the external facade of the archbishop's house in Cologne with color and the writing "Woelki= abuse and hatred of women" was left. Rainer Maria Woelki
is archbishop of Cologne and deeply involved in the abuse incidents against children and their cover-up.

 Cover image: https://www.migrantinnen.net/weg-mit-%C2%A7-218/