Marchers in Rome protest Italy's allowing abortion

ROME – A few thousand people opposed to Italy's 1978 law allowing abortion have marched through the Italian capital in a protest drawing people from around the world, including Americans and Poles.

Nuns, priests and lay people marched in Rome Sunday from the Colosseum to Castel Sant'Angelo, a landmark near the Vatican.

In Italy, abortion on demand is legal through to the end of the third month of pregnancy.

After a long battle between secular forces and the church, voters upheld the law in a 1981 referendum. There is no major momentum now to rescind the law.

Some in the Mother's Day march pushed babies in strollers. One American participant, the Rev. Dominick Holtz, from St. Louis, Missouri, said the march united people from around the world against legalized abortion.