Who’s going to the party? II

Just another selection of the lovely people who are attending the antichoice conference in Madrid today. There will be a nice official reception hosted by the mayoress of Madrid, Ana Botella, later on in the day. Such fun.

Christine Boutin

This French ex-MP, who claims Spain is spearheading progress with its antiabortion law, stated on one point ” We are being overrun with gays“.

Carlo Casini

Head of the Italian antichoice movement, Carlo Casini, a MEP, declared: “Both child and mother are victims of abortion”.

Jan Figel

Jan Figel, vice-president of the Slovakian parliament, halted the gay marriage bill in his country. Although gay marriage finally became legal this year, Figel is adamant that marriage should be between a man and a woman.

Christopher O. Tollefsen

Tollefsen is professor of philosophy at the University of South Carolina and co-author of Embryo: A Defense of Human Life. According to El Diario, he is quoted as saying: “I think it’s normal for a prolifer (sic) opposed to abortion to become a prolifer (sic) who advocates chastity in and out of marriage”. Figure that one out.

Who’s going to the party?

Today and tomorrow, to the shame of Spain, a reputedly 21st century European country, an antichoice conference, organised by the Popular Party (Spain’s governing conservative party) will be held in the capital city of Madrid. The conference is called “The International Seminar on the Right to Life” and  Madrid’s mayoress Ana Botella (wife of creepy ex-conservative PM José María Aznar) will be welcoming attendees with open arms via an official reception.

Abortion is murder, yadda yadda yadda…

Parliamentarians, professors of philosophy and of genetics, ex-MPs, ex-European commissioners, amongst others, are just some of the attendees at this antichoice knees up, designed to provide Gallardón’s antiabortion bill with international scientific and legislative authority and credibility. This jolly was intended to end with an official statement, to be known as “The Madrid Declaration”, which would state that abortion is murder, yadda yadda yadda… However, and to the surprise of the attendees, Gallardón, the rising star of the antiabortion movement, withdrew from the conference at the very last minute due to some report or another on the bill not being ready.

Keep your friends close and your enemies closer

Spanish daily, El Diario, has put together a little collection of some of the more memorable phrases of the conference’s attendees. Unsurprisingly, all of them are antichoice, against LGBT rights and are all for the traditional nuclear family. Over the next few days, we shall be introducing you to them. Keep your friends close and your enemies even closer, as they say… Today we start with Cristina Reyes, onetime winner of “Queen of Guayaquil”:

Cristina Reyes, winner of “Queen of Guayaquil”

Cristina Reyes is an ex-beauty contest winner and now an Ecuadorian MP. She happily cites on her CV her achievements in the beauty pageant world, including her participation in “Miss International World”. Referring to abortion legislation in her country in 2008, Ms Reyes asked: “Do we want a country in which thousands of children are murdered?” She has also said: “The right to choose justifies a total crime”.