Conservative Christians want to show that they can take to the streets, too.
Juan de Dios Calderón, general coordinator and president of the Evangelists and Prophets Network, announced a march for “family rights and peace” on Aug. 10, in response to bills in the legislature regarding same-sex domestic partnerships, abortion, in vitro fertilization and the morning-after pill, the daily La Nación reported.
Calderón called the series of bills an “attack on the family” and a “combo of death,” reported EFE on crhoy.com.
Costa Rican Renovation Party lawmaker Justo Orozco said that the march, which he supports, was in response to the “little marches” held by the Diversity Movement, a lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender advocacy group, added La Nación.
The Diversity Movement held a gay pride parade on June 30 in San José where 2,000 signatures were collected for a petition to address same-sex marriage in the Legislative Assembly.
Costa Rica is the only country in the Western Hemisphere to outlaw in vitro fertilization. Passed in 2000, under pressure from the Catholic Church, the decade-old ban was denounced by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in 2010. The court ruled in favor of two Tico couples unable to conceive a child, arguing that Costa Rica violated their rights to privacy and reproduction.
Costa Rica has yet to pass a bill that legalizes and regulates the infertility treatment in response to the court’s ruling.
“We want life to continue. The event is in support of the traditional family of a father, mother, brothers and grandparents. It’s against domestic partnerships and all that goes against what the Bible says,” the evangelical legislator said, according to EFE.
The Aug. 10 march will start in Parque de la Merced in San José and end at Parque de la Democracia.
