Archbishop Makarios, Primate of the Orthodox Church of Australia address the crowd at anti-abortion rally in Sydney

His Eminence Archbishop Makarios, Primate of the Greek Orthodox Church of Australia, along with other political, civic and religious leaders, addressed the large crowd that attended the 'Stand For Life’ protest at Martin Place on Tuesday evening.

The protest was in opposition to the proposed bill currently before New South Wales Parliament, to decriminalise abortion.

The protest was so loud it could be heard from inside the chamber where the draft laws were being debated.

The bill which passed the NSW Legislative Assembly two weeks ago, "will allow abortion for any reason up until five and half months, and up until birth with the agreement of two doctors. Further, doctors who object the abortion will be forced to violate their conscience and immediately refer a woman to another practitioner to perform the procedure," His Eminence Archbishop Makarios of Australia wrote in a statement released earlier this month regarding the proposed bill.

Earlier in the day, NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian caved in to her conservative MPs and delayed the abortion vote in the upper house for several weeks in a last-minute attempt to bring calm to her party. This means that an outcome that was expected later this week, won't be reached until September when Parliament resumes.

The crowd which included many families and young people was so large, security was forced to create a passage for pedestrians to pass through.

The protest was the largest pro-life rally seen in Sydney in decades. Even with so many people gathered in a small area, the crowd became silent for a minute to listen to a live heart beat of a 26-week-old unborn child of Sydney couple Chantal and Piotr Czeczotko.

*All images by Nick Bourdaniotis Photography exclusive for Greek City Times (Copyright) 

*Watch the address of His Eminence Archbishop Makarios here: