LGBT rights and abortion as a fundamental right: the 46th General Assembly of the OAS.

By Marianna Orlandi, Ph.D. | June 10, 2016

 

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The Dominican Republic is about to host the General Assembly of the Organization of the American States (OAS). As observers predicted, this year also the resolutions that the member states are about to adopt contain numerous references to the so-called LGBT rights and to “sexual and reproductive health and rights”.

At the same time, these OAS’ documents seem to forget the family and the protection of children, while pushing for abortion as a fundamental right.

Notwithstanding the theme of the General Assembly, “Institutional Strengthening for Sustainable Development”, the fundamental cell, the most basic institution of society, the family, is once more trashed and forgotten. Where the rights of children are mentioned, no reference to parental rights – nor duties – appears.

“Adolescents” are mentioned in a document that pushes for recognition of their “sexual and reproductive health and rights” (SRHR), id est, for free access to teenagers’ abortion. In fact, even though the UN member states never agreed to a definition of SRHR that includes abortion as a right, the MESECVI – the follow-up mechanism monitoring the implementation of the Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment, and Eradication of Violence against Women – did come to this conclusion. Its positions are not binding, but the member states are pressured to accept them.

Another push for overturning all Latin American laws that still protect the life of the unborn comes from a draft declaration on Zika. Speaking, once more, of non-better defined “sexual and reproductive rights and services”, to be offered to pregnant women and to all women of reproductive age, this declaration seems to suggest that access to abortion shall now  be seen, at least in the Americas, as an instrument to fight an infective disease.

As for LGBT rights, the documents asking for their recognition and protection would be unthinkable for those who advocate for this same agenda at the UN. In fact, possibly in light of the little “fame” of the OAS, Inter-American “agencies and experts” have highly succeeded in campaigning for LGBT-friendly policies, passing resolutions that recognized the debated categories of “Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity” (and, even, of “Gender Expression”) and that  prohibited “all forms of discrimination” based upon them.

The bizarre consequence is that one of the most traditionalist areas of the world, one where even a divorced taxi-driver (personal experience) tells you that “we must fight for the family!”, where children are often as numerous as a soccer team, could be the scenario for: the annihilation of the family, the violation of the rights of the unborn, the celebration of homosexuality, transgenderism, etc.

However, the OAS has possibly underestimated that the people of the Americas are not willing to bow their heads.

On the one hand, hundreds of pro-life and pro-family NGOs are now gathering in Santo Domingo. Most of them are Latin American, but the whole world joined their efforts. C-Fam is there. The global pro-family and pro-life movement is well ad alive. In addition, the Dominican media seem to support its views.

The coverage that the national TV offered to the press conference convened by the Auxiliary Bishop of Santo Domingo, Víctor Masalles, representative of the civil society movement “Si, queremos sostenibilidad” (“Yes, we want sustainability”) was impressive. In his words, the 46th General Assembly of the OAS “tries to impose the international agenda that favors homosexuals and lesbians (LGBT) and that trashes family and life”.

Together with Leslie Torres, coordinator of the movement, and with Neydy Casillas, legal counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom, Masalles organized a pacific public protest for the upcoming Sunday, to raise people’s awareness.

On the other hand, several politicians are of the same mind. A good number of states expressed reservations on the most controversial documents; some foreign ministers instructed their delegations to refuse any language that confuses “gender equality” and homosexual policies during the negotiations. Apparently, the consensus on these topics is not growing, but diminishing.

Both for the civil society and for the states that still treasure life and family, this General Assembly will be a fight, until June 15th. But the good soldiers are ready – notwithstanding the OAS; notwithstanding Zika.

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