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Uruguay Leftists to Pass Homosexual Civil Partnership Law

by Hilary White

MONTEVIDEO, September 15, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The ruling leftist party of Uruguay has passed legislation that will allow homosexual partnerings to be recognized as the legal equivalent of natural marriage.

Under the new law, couples who have lived together for at least five years, can have their relationship recognized as a civil partnership with the equivalent legal protections of marriage. The new law will affect inheritance, taxation and child custody.

Senator Margarita Percovich, a sponsor of the bill, told Reuters news service that the bill will pass the lower house easily because of the majority held by the leftist coalition party. “If there is recognition (of the partnership), it's as though it were a marriage,” she said.

Though popular support for the regularization of homosexuality is doubtful, because of Uruguay’s left-leaning government, the country has been among a coalition of countries pushing the United Nations for advancement of the homosexual political agenda. Last year, Uruguay was signatory to a statement complaining of the reluctance at the United Nations to include “sexual orientation” in its human rights considerations.

Uruguay’s birth rate stands, as of 2006 statistics, at 1.89 children born per woman – just under replacement level – and the large number of younger people leaving for work opportunities in other countries means the decline and “greying” of the population has become a serious concern. Though 66% of the population is Catholic, in recent years, secularization has set in and less than half the adult population attends church regularly.

Leftist activists have targeted the country for the full agenda of anti-family legal revision including recognition of homosexuality, legalizing abortion and pushing contraception and the abortifacient “morning after” pill.

In 2004, the senate refused, by a narrow 17-13 vote, to pass legislation that would have allowed abortion in the first trimester of pregnancy and begun the process of “sex-education” and contraceptive distribution that forms the backbone of the population control movement. The bill had already passed Uruguay's House of Representatives.

Read related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
Canada and 32 Other Countries Frustrated at Block of Homosexual Agenda at United Nations
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/apr/05041505.html

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