Excerpts from a speech made by independent MEP Cătălin IVAN during the 2019, Bucharest Pro-life March – “Unique from the First Second”, on March 23, 2019. During his speech, Cătălin IVAN was joined on stage by his wife and their three daughters. Cătălin IVAN is the organizer of the “Babies Go to the European Parliament” event, which took place on March 19, 2019, the first one of this type to have been hosted by the European Parliament in Brussels.
“I have a pretty good understanding of the notion of pregnancy crisis. On the other hand, I think this is a topic that is rarely – or never – discussed in Romania. As a politician that has been working with the European Parliament for the past ten years, I can tell you that it is not necessarily lack of goodwill that characterizes the political class in that respect, but ignorance. Indeed, pregnancy crisis is a topic that is never discussed and that nobody knows anything about.
It is quite recently that I myself have become acquainted with this issue and its true emotional weight. As soon as I became aware of it, I chose to do something about it. My interests used to lie elsewhere: they focused more on economic issues; I was into fighting corruption, and had altogether different concerns. Yet – believe me – there is no other issue, in today’s world, which is more important than pregnancy crises.
We have a duty to the generations that came before us. We have a duty to the generations to come. As an old saying goes, it takes a whole village to raise a child. It takes a family, friends, and every one of us, for the unborn ones to come into this world and make it a better one.
It is for the first time that I have organized an event like this – the “Babies Go to the European Parliament”. It was a successful first edition – but that is not what matters. What matters is that this event will become a tradition. What matters even more is that this event will take place every year – and more importantly yet, that we will try (and I can assure you that we will succeed!) to include this topic among the European debates. Until now, we have mostly reacted to other (non-) issues, regarding various communities who try to move to the forefront and promote all sorts of non-values. It is time we put some real values on the European and domestic agendas.
What we are talking about is launching a Romanian project, in Europe – a European project. The only European project that would make sense today is how to help women in a pregnancy crisis, how to encourage young people to get married, start a family, and raise a child, or two, or three; how to help mothers make the right decision when they find themselves in a difficult situation.
Today, Romania – Europe – need a community that supports women in a pregnancy crisis. That community is us: every one of us and all of us, together!
So let us help mothers – and the children who have not been born yet.”