During his brief stay in Costa Rica, Uruguay's ex-President José Mujica (2010-2015) commented on his administration’s experience passing controversial laws, including medical marijuana and gay common-law marriage.
In a reminder that Costa Rica’s Catholic Church is still woefully stuck in the past, one of its highest leaders on Sunday used the annual pilgrimage to Cartago, which draws an estimated 2 million people each year, to speak out against legalizing gay civil unions and in vitro fertilization.
President Luis Guillermo Solís said his office will issue regulations by September to comply with a regional court ruling by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.
“We are reaching a point where we will be forced to make a decision. That includes the possibility of passing IVF by an executive decree so that the country does not have to face another sanction,” Solís told reporters.
President Luis Guillermo Solís on Monday expressed support for Costa Rican families regardless of the form they take, including those seeking children via in vitro fertilization.
Costa Rica is the only country in the Western Hemisphere to completely ban in vitro fertilization. Some 70 couples are suing the government for denying them the right to undergo the procedure, asking for compensation of up to ₡150 million each.
Officials from President Luis Guillermo Solís’ administration were tight-lipped about their support for two controversial bills in the upcoming legislative session that were campaign promises of the Citizen Action Party’s presidential platform: gay civil unions and in vitro fertilization. The bills might prove too divisive for a government struggling to secure support from a fractured legislature.
