Tag Archives: Country: Argentina

AP: Pope Francis waded diplomatically into the gay marriage debate Friday, telling the Archbishop of Canterbury he wants to work together to promote family values “based on marriage.”

AP: Argentina’s health care providers must now provide fertility treatments to anyone older than 18 who wants them, be they married or single, gay or straight.

Boston Globe: Argentina’s government told the country’s largest media conglomerate on Monday that it has begun a process to break up the company and auction off its media licenses.

AP: Argentine President Cristina Fernandez faced a nationwide strike on Tuesday, led by the union bosses who used to be her most steadfast supporters.

Telegraph (includes video): An estimated 700,000 people gathered around the city’s landmark obelisk and other main avenues to march towards the Casa Rosada, the Argentine seat of government.

NY Times: While Argentina was getting ready for a big protest against the government on Thursday, I found myself thinking about the more cheerful march that will fill the streets of Buenos Aires on Saturday. Tens of thousands of people are expected to get together for Argentina’s 21st annual gay pride march down the Avenida de Mayo, and though again this year they will make demands, the gathering should also be a celebration of just how much things have improved for sexual minorities here.

AP: Thousands of people are using social networks to mobilize a huge march Thursday night against President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, organizing what they hope will be the country’s biggest anti-government protest in more than a decade.

LifeSite News (video included): Argentina’s National Women’s Encounter attracts thousands of women every year from extremist feminist groups, many of them homosexuals, to angrily demand the acceptance of their political agenda, which includes the legalization of abortion and the vindication of the homosexual lifestyle.

AP: Argentina’s Supreme Court has ruled that a woman rescued from a prostitution ring must get the abortion she wants.

Reuters: Pedro Andereggen, a lawyer for the Association for the Promotion and Defense of the Family, which led the legal campaign against this week’s abortion, said his group was fighting for unborn children’s rights and hoped courts throughout Argentina would ignore the Supreme Court ruling. “The mother doesn’t have the right to kill her child, even when she’s been the victim of rape. The right to life of an innocent human being is absolute and allows no exceptions whatsoever,” Andereggen said.

LifeSiteNews: A judge in the Argentinean capital of Buenos Aires has issued an injunction prohibiting an abortion that was scheduled on a woman who was claimed to be a sex trafficking victim, noting that two wrongs won’t make a right.

FoxNews: A court order that barred a rape victim Tuesday from having an abortion has sparked a heated controversy in Argentin

UPI: With two laws passed this year giving citizens more control over legal decisions about their bodies, a new campaign is advocating for legal, safe and free abortion in Argentina in order to reduce the number of women who die in clandestine clinics. Still, advocates aren’t confident that the Argentine National Congress will pass the bill this year despite the fact that a majority of Argentines disapprove of penalizing a woman for procuring an abortion.

Washington Post reports.

Washington Post: Adults who want sex-change surgery or hormone therapy in Argentina will be able to get it as part of their public or private health care plans under a gender rights law approved Wednesday.

AP: It will enable people to prepare advanced health care directives, and when damage is irreversible, families will be able to decide whether or not to keep them on life support. It also says that doctors cannot be prosecuted for following a family’s wishes. Some opponents worry that withdrawing food and fluids could cause pain . . .

AP: In a bold move to gain control of Argentina’s energy reserves, President Cristina Fernandez pushed forward a bill to renationalize the country’s largest oil company on Monday despite fierce criticism from abroad and the risk of a major rift with Spain.

C-Fam: In a surprising ruling, the Supreme Court of Argentina has declared abortion is a woman’s right in case of rape under international law.

Argentinosalertos.org (Google translation from Spanish): The Supreme Court of Justice ruled on Tuesday March 13 unanimously that abortions in women who are raped are not punishable. You can get an abortion without judicial authorization. Women only need to complete an affidavit attesting to the violation for doctors performing the abortion ” in a fast, accessible and safe . . . Institutions and relating to be presented in individual amicus curiae applying to reverse the judgment of the superior court of chubut . . . Alliance Defense Fund . . .

No one should use a terrible tragedy to further a purely political agenda about putting innocent children to death.

Google News (AP): Argentina’s Supreme Court has ruled that any rape victim can get an abortion, setting a historic precedent in a country where abortions are generally illegal.

Catholic News Agency: “We are not saying that all children should be taught the Catholic religion but rather that all children should be allowed to receive religious education, or to opt out of it, according to the decision of their parents,” the bishops said on March 5.

National Catholic Register: “It’s part of a trend in Latin America that often doesn’t get noticed: that there is the ‘latex left,’ and certainly countries like Uruguay and Argentina — they’re pushing this pro-abortion, pro-same-sex ‘marriage’ agenda, (and) the justices in Mexico City [are too],” said Tozzi. “But elsewhere the left is more of an old left that emphasizes economics rather than the ‘latex left’ issues,” he added . . . Tozzi sees signs of hope in other countries as well: “You also have the example of Ollanta Humala in Peru, who was elected president about half a year ago, with broad left-wing support. For a variety of reasons, he has rejected the ‘latex left’ agenda. His women’s affairs minister, a big pro-abortion supporter, was fired by him about a month ago and replaced with a woman who’s an evangelical Christian. So there are certain elements of the left in Latin America that are distinct from the latex left, which people sometimes overlook.”

LifeSiteNews.com: A majority of legislators in Argentina’s National Congress now say that they support the decriminalization of abortion during the first trimester of pregnancy, according to a poll conducted by the government’s Center for Labor Studies and Investigations (CEIL) and reported by Argentina’s Pagina 12.

LifeSiteNews.com: The Argentinean province of Corrientes has declared itself to be officially “pro-life,” in a statement signed by Governor Ricardo Colombi.

(abstract only below)

Juan Marco Vaggione, Sexual Rights and religion: Same-sex Marriage and Lawmakers’ Catholic Identity in Argentina, 65 University of Miami Law Review 935-954 (2011).

The legal regulation of marriage in Argentina has undergone reforms that, in a variety of ways, have dismantled religion’s influence over law. While these reforms reaffirm the centrality of marriage in the construction of the sexual order, they also redefine marriage, distancing it from the sacrament defended by the Catholic Church. In 1888, civil and religious marriages were distinguished from one another as part of a reform process in response to late-century secularist and liberal ideologies. 1 Church and State became, at least legally, autonomous with respect to marriage; while the latter regulated the civil contract, the Church only concerned itself with the celebration of the religious sacrament. However, the legal construction of marriage was, of course, substantiated by the religious doctrine. Almost a century later, in 1987, 2 the related Divorce Law was passed, 3 made possible largely by the recent restoration of democracy and the influence of women’s movements in the region. 4 The law distanced itself from religious sacrament by establishing the solubility of the bond as a constitutive part of the institution of marriage. Finally, in 2010, a new reform took place through which marriage was authorized between same-sex couples, 5 arising from a demand primarily promoted by the movement for sexual diversity. This reform broke from the principle of Catholic doctrine that the sexes are complementary and generated complete equality in marriage between partners of the same or opposite sexes.

LifeSiteNews.com: Law professors attending Argentina’s most important conference on civil law have voted to declare that the nation’s recently-passed homosexual “marriage” legislation is unconstitutional.

Fox News Latino: A year after Argentina became the first Latin American country to pass legislation to legalize homosexual civil unions, the gay marriage debate has heated up, as several countries consider similar bills.

Newser: A LGBT groups says the divorce involves a female couple who married on April 20. The 46-year-old and 25-year-old are splitting due to an alleged infidelity

LifeSiteNews: The Argentinean government is in the process of distributing millions of copies of a United Nations “sexual education” publication that teaches that homosexual couples are a type of “family,” and states that gays have a “right” to “live [their] sexuality,” according to the pro-family Argentinean Center for Bioethics, the Person, and the Family.

LifeSiteNews: The French Catholic hierarchy is supporting at least two pro-abortion groups in Latin America through its international development agency, LifeSiteNews has learned.

The Press Association: “A key committee of Argentinian politicians is launching a first-ever debate on legalising abortion in the largely Roman Catholic country.”

LifeSiteNews: “Flush with a recent $100 million donation from leftist billionaire George Soros, the abortion lobby Human Rights Watch (HRW) is setting its sights on Argentina, where it hopes to pressure the government to remove ‘obstacles’ to abortion and sterilization, and allow the distribution of contraceptives to children as young as 13 years of age, without parental approval.”

Catholic News Agency: “In its November edition the Argentinean Catholic magazine Familia y Vida (Family and Life) has published a full report on the violent attacks against pro-life advocates that took place at the National Women’s Conference in the city of Parana between Oct. 9 and 11. While the country’s secular media completely ignored the story, Family and Life published its November edition early in order to provide readers complete coverage, including analysis, eye-witness accounts and exclusive photos filed by its team of journalists.”

Catholic News Agency: “Archbishop Hector Aguer of La Plata, Argentina criticized a proposal by the country’s Chief Justice Carmen Argibay to remove crucifixes from the courtroom, saying such a move would leave the country empty of transcendent values and at the mercy of agnosticism and relativism.”

LifeSiteNews: “Argentinean transvestites are objecting to new legislation proposed to create a third bathroom for their use in commercial establishments, according to local and international reports. The proposed law, advanced by councilwoman Gimena Abonassar of the city of San Martín, is intended to protect women from men who enter their bathrooms dressed as the opposite sex, an increasingly common occurrence in certain countries.”

Catholic News Agency: “’The law poses new challenges to the Church: how to confront this new reality in education, particularly in Catholic schools, with teachers and with students.  And also how to address the issue in families,’ the priest said.”

C-FAM: “A report released last week by the human rights advocacy group Human Rights Watch promotes abortion in Argentina and criticizes Argentina for not complying with international law . . . The report erroneously cites several international human rights treaties and committees . . . for its claim that international law requires Argentina to provide abortion-on-demand. In fact, no international human rights treaty contains a right to abortion. When CEDAW and ICCPR were negotiated, many of the negotiating countries had pro-life laws on the books that still remain in place today.”

Ciudad 1 [Google translation]: “The Health Commission of the Legislature [will debate on] Tuesday a bill for comprehensive care of abortions [that] are not punishable in the health system of Buenos Aires.”

La Gaceta [Google translation]: “Representatives of the United Nations (UN) met last week with officials from the Ministry of Health [to] raise concerns about the high rate of maternal mortality in Argentina and [to] support the implementation of [a] guide to address issues of legal abortions. This was announced today the Buenos Aires newspaper Clarin, which said the meeting took place last Friday.” | The New York Times has more information on the guide at issue: “Earlier in July, though, a ministry official said Dr. Manzur had signed a resolution backing a guide to legal abortion services. The guide would allow doctors to carry out abortions for rape victims without securing a police report. But a day later, the minister issued a statement saying he had not signed the resolution, and Argentine news outlets suggested that Mrs. Kirchner had ordered him to halt the effort.”

AICA [Google translation]: “An important group of professors from the University of Buenos Aires (UBA) rejected the ruling of the Superior Council of Aug. 11 for a change in national legislation within the meaning of the decriminalization of abortion and in favor of course right to abortion legal, safe and free.”

ACLU Blog of Rights: “The summer got started a little early with Portugal, on June 5, becoming the sixth European country allowing same-sex couples to marry . . . On July 8, a federal court in Boston ruled that the federal Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional . . . On July 22, Argentina, also through the legislative process, became the first South American country to allow same-sex couples to marry . . . On August 4, a federal judge declared California’s anti-gay marriage amendment, Prop. 8, unconstitutional . . . On August 5, the Mexican Supreme Court upheld the decision of Mexico City to grant same-sex couples the ability to marry. On August 11, the Court ruled that all Mexican states must recognize the marriages of those couples married in Mexico City . . .”

Catholic News Agency: “The pro-life office of the Fundar Movement in Argentina is offering a conscientious objection guide to justices of the peace who are opposed to gay “marriage” and refuse to preside over same-sex ‘weddings.’”

Argentina Becomes First Latin-American Nation to Legislate in Favor of Marriage for Same-Sex Partners after Iceland Takes the Plunge (Google Viewer)
New York Law School’s Lesbian/Gay Law Notes

“In the early morning hours of July 15, Argentina’s Senate concluded a 16 hour debate by voting 33-27 (with 3 abstentions) in favor of legislation that will provide full access to marriage for same-sex couples in that country. The Senate vote endorsed a bill that was approved by the lower house of the legislature on May 5, 2010, by a vote of 125-109, with 6 abstentions. President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner is a strong supporter of the legislation, so final enactment is assured. The legislation will substitute the term ‘the marrying parties’ for ‘husband and wife’ in the existing laws governing marriage. It becomes effective upon publication in the official bulletin, which was expected to take place within a few days of the vote. Further legislation will be needed to make necessary adjustments in other statutes. The Argentinian action came just a month after Iceland’s Parliament had voted unanimously, 49-0, on June 12 to approve legislation allowing same-sex marriages, with the law coming into force on June 27.”

LifeSiteNews: “Blasted by representatives of Argentina’s pro-life majority, and threatened with legal action, Argentinean Health Minister Juan Manzur is distancing himself from a new ‘guide’ issued by his agency that would permit women to obtain abortions by signing an oath that they have been raped, and would allow minors to receive abortions against their parents’ will.”

JURIST: “Argentine President Cristina Fernandez on Wednesday signed a same-sex marriage bill into law. The signing ceremony comes one week after the bill was approved by the legislature, making Argentina the first Latin American nation to legalize same-sex marriage. The legislation, which includes adoption rights for same-sex couples, was approved after 14 hours of debate, despite strong opposition from some lawmakers who introduced an alternative bill that would have allowed civil unions nationwide without adoption rights.”

Yahoo (Reuters): “The Catholic Church’s failure to derail a gay marriage law in Argentina shows once powerful clergymen losing their influence in Latin America, where pressure is growing for more liberal social legislation. … Extending gay rights and other social legislation being pushed through by the region’s politicians suggest Latin Americans are becoming more liberal in contrast with the Church’s unbending views on sexual freedom, contraceptives and abortion.”

The Pulse: “A Chilean couple is acting fast after hearing that the Argentinian government approved gay marriage this past Thursday. Already they have called the Civil Registry of Mendoza, Chile’s neighboring city, to inquire about marriage procedures.”

Catholic News Agency: “Bishop Elizalde said the passage of the law should lead Argentineans to question ‘the seriousness of the gospel commitment we claim to have. The coarse political context cannot justify what has happened.’ ‘As time goes on certain aspects will be clarified and new ways of behaving in society will be established,’ he ventured. ‘The consequences will become evident in many areas, perhaps not right away, but there will certainly be repercussions in family life and in the formation of young people,’ the bishop warned.”

Catholic News Agency: “‘They can accuse me of what they want. God has spoken, and I am going to obey Him to the letter, even if it costs me my job, even if it costs me my life, because what God says comes first,’ [Marta Covella] said.”

Living in Peru: “After the approval of gay marriage in Argentina, two homosexual organizations in Lima announced they are seeking for political allies among the candidates running in Peru’s 2011 presidential elections, in order to promote gay marriage in Peru.”

… ADF weighed in with a tight, five-page opinion letter submitted in Spanish to Senator Liliana Negre, a same-sex ‘marriage’ opponent who chaired the Senate debate. ..

InfoRegion (Google Translation): The General Peace Judge Covello Marta Pico that he does not marry a same-sex couples because this contrary to their religious convictions: “Nobody is going to change my thinking. Someone is going to marry those couples, if they have orders, but not me, “said the magistrate.

“The approval came despite a concerted campaign by the Roman Catholic Church and evangelical groups, which drew 60,000 people to march on Congress . . .”

AP:  ”Thousands of demonstrators opposed to same-sex marriage have gathered outside Argentina’s congress ahead of a key vote by lawmakers . . . ”

Newsok.com: “Mormon church leaders have restated the faith’s position on gay marriage to its members in Argentina, where the government is debating whether to legalize gay unions . . . ”

“Argentina’s number one Catholic prelate, Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, is calling upon the priests of the Archdiocese of Buenos Aires to bring their flocks to an upcoming protest against homosexual “marriage,” which is currently under consideration by the nation’s senate . . . ”

Reuters: “Argentina’s government is fighting to get a gay marriage bill through Congress to shore up its leftist credentials ahead of a 2011 vote and to steal the limelight from opposition-led proposals. … But even if opponents and religious groups succeed in blocking the bill, the debate has allowed the government to divert attention from popular opposition proposals that could become a major headache for President Cristina Fernandez, such as a steep hike in pension payments.”

Catholic News Agency: “Archbishop Hector Aguer of La Plata in Argentina has denounced the government for pressuring some senators, who had said they would vote against homosexual “marriage,” to skip debate on the measure or to abstain during the vote.”

On Top Mag (“gay advocacy website”): “A key panel in the Argentine Senate is expected to deliver its recommendation on a gay marriage bill Tuesday. The Senate General Law Committee began debate on the bill last month after it was approved in May by Argentina’s lower house, the Chamber of Deputies (la Camara de Diputados). The committee is headed by Senator Liliana Negre de Alonso, who has publicly said she disagrees with giving gay and lesbian couples the right to marry.”

Buenos Aires Herald: “The General Legislation Committee in the Senate, led by Liliana Negre de Alonso, continues debating the same-sex marriage bill. Former Justice Ministry officials, lawyers and religious representatives are today’s main speakers at the debate.”

Buenos Aires Herald: “The Upper House began a new phase in its debate on the same-sex marriage, this time with psychologists and psychiatrists being the ones exposing their viewpoints. The General Legislation Committee is officially discussing the draft which aims at amending the Civil Code to allow gay couples to get married. The first shift of debate has concluded.”

LifeSiteNews: “As homosexual ‘marriage’ legislation is being debated in the Argentinean senate, a group of adopted children is speaking out against adoption by gay couples, according to ACI Prensa. Speaking on Radio Cultura, a station in Buenos Aires, the teens said that children should have the same opportunity as they have had to grow up with a father and a mother . . . ”

Buenos Aires Herald: “The Senate has begun debating a bill for a law that would legalize gay marriage. The bill is looking to modify the National Civil Code and change the definition of marriage from being between a man and a woman to being between two ‘contractors.’”

OnTopMag (“gay advocacy website”): “The General Law Committee of Argentina’s Senate will take up a gay marriage bill on Tuesday, Parlamentario.com reported.”

Irish Examiner: “The House of Deputies approved same-sex marriage by an ample margin and sent the legislation for consideration in the Senate. President Cristina Fernandez promised not to veto the measure if it reaches her desk.”

Parlementario.com [Google Translation]: “After 12 hours of debate, the House approved the amendment of Civil Code for two people of the same sex can marry. Now is the turn of the Senate. The session was adjourned until Wednesday at 14 to treat the income of the initial approval of the Senate to change the sharing of the tax check.”

Diario Digital De Santa Fe [Google Translation]: “The Archbishop of Santa Fe, Monsignor Jose Maria Arancedo, spoke against the bill to authorize marriage between persons of the same sex in Argentina and to be adopted in the Chamber of Deputies.”

OnTopMag (“gay advocacy website”): “Nestor Kirchner, Argentina’s former president and a current national deputy, says he’ll vote in favor of a gay marriage bill . . . Kirchner relinquished control of Argentina in 2007 when he handed the reigns of power to his wife, Christina Fernandez de Kirchner. He currently helms the powerful Front for Victory Party (Frente Para la Victoria, FPV) and represents the Buenos Aires Province in the country’s lower chamber.”

Buenos Aires Herald: “As for the same sex marriage debate, Rossi called for a special session to be held next Wednesday in order to discuss the controversial bill which allows it . . . the resolution which the Family and General Legislation committees have issued modifies the Civil Code and replaces the terms “man and woman” for general words implying no sex.”

Latin American Herald Tribune: “A judge on Friday voided the marriage last week of two women in this capital, the first union of its kind in Argentina, judicial officials said. Argentine Norma Castillo and Uruguay’s Ramona Arevalo, who are both 67 and have been a couple for the past three decades, married on April 9 after getting the go-ahead from Judge Elena Liberatori.”

Buenos Aires Herald: “The lawmaker explained that the current Adoption Bill allows for heterosexual couples and single parents to adopt, hence there’s already many gay men and women who have adopted children. ‘Homosexual people adopt children all the time, we’re not changing anything, only regulating something that already exists. When gay parents decide to adopt, only one person signs up as foster parent, but both of them raise their child,’ she stressed.”

Buenos Aires Herald: “Norma and Ramona got married in Buenos Aires city after having requested for legal protection within the framework of the campaign ‘Same right, same names’ the LGBT Argentine Federation has been carrying out for several months.”

Telam: “‘Daniela Ugolini, Prosecutor of the Administrative Disputes Chamber, who will hold or not the appeal by the prosecutor Mariana Pucciarello’ said Telam Canevaro, who yesterday [requested] an interview with the Attorney . . . in downtown Buenos Aires . . . Ugolini, who is responsible [for] the decision to hold or discontinue the action at first instance and raise it to the Court of Appeals, so far [has] not responded to the request of the [couple's request for an interview].” [Google Translation]

El Argentino: “The judge in the Administrative, William Scheibler, ordered the city government to celebrate the marriage of two persons of the same sex. Also declared unconstitutional the articles of the Civil Code allowing only heterosexual marriage.” [Google Translation]