WP/AP: Italians Rally for Abortion Rights, Gay Unions

[DeepModem Mom]

Italians Rally for Abortion Rights, Gay Unions
Rallies, Denounced by Church, Government Ministers, Fuel Election Debate
By Frances D'Emilio
Associated Press
Sunday, January 15, 2006; Page A22


ROME, Jan. 14 -- Tens of thousands of women marched through Milan on Saturday to demand that Italy keep its liberal abortion law intact while gays rallied in Rome to push for legal recognition for homosexual couples.

Both topics have become issues in Italy's election campaign, and the Roman Catholic Church and ministers in Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's conservative government were scathing in denouncing the rallies.

"These demonstrators are really nauseating," said Reforms Minister Roberto Calderoli, a member of the right-wing Northern League, according to the Italian news agency ANSA. "Family is a serious thing, based on love between a man and a woman."

Culture Minister Rocco Buttiglione, who is close to the Vatican, told reporters that people's energy should be spent on what he called pro-family efforts such as finding jobs and housing.

"These are the political problems you should put the spotlight on, because without children, Italy dies," Buttiglione said....


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/14/AR2006011401028.html

[CatholicEdHead]

1. Nice to see that rally

This is mostly the black/white point they talk about:
"These are the political problems you should put the spotlight on, because without children, Italy dies,"

That to have civil unions and marriages of homosexuals, that alone will hurt the reproductive ability of the country they are clearly wrong. There will always be enough children born in (and out of) heterosexual unions/marriages.

[smirkymonkey]

2. Doesn't Italy have one of the lowest birth rates in Europe?

It's probably because Italian men are such pathetic little mama's boys that Italian women know that they will be doing all the work themselves and opt out. But no, instead they blame the gay population for their dwindling birthrates. :eyes:

[Straight Shooter]

3. "Family is a serious thing ..."

Someone should explain that to Berlusconi and his mistress. :7

"Veronica Lario/Madame Silvio Berlusconi: You probably never heard of her, but she's an Italian actress who was Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's mistress before he married her in 1980. Italian voters didn't mind the marriage, but all is apparently not well today. Veronica refuses to live with Berlusconi, 68, in his Roman palace, frequently criticizes him in public and hinted strongly in her book about his serial philandering.

http://www.knoxstudio.com/shns/story.cfm?pk=CHARLES-WEDDING-02-22-05&cat=EP

[DeepModem Mom]

4. Same "family values" hypocrisy as here at home, huh? nt