Archives: Resources

This is a brief detailing Catholics for Choice’s views on the second day of the 2007 World Congress of Families. It details misleading commentary on sexual and reproductive health, emphases on heterosexual, monogamous families as the best model, and sexism by speakers.

This brief is a summary of the criticisms made by Catholics for Choice on the first day of the World Congress of Families in 2007 in Poland. This includes criticisms of religiously-founded arguments on family and homophobia, and false information given by speakers present at the event.

This brief summarizes Catholics for Choice’s views on the third day of the World Congress of Families session, 2007. It expresses concerns over speakers’ views, which are anti-choice and sexist.

The World Congress of Families is a US-based right-wing religious initiative that exports homophobia and sexism globally. This report is the first in a series of “Opposition Watch” briefs by Catholics for Choice, which uncovers the speakers and events at the World Congress of Families, 2009. This first-day brief analyses various speeches made at the Congress and highlights anti-choice, anti-health, sexist, and puritanical rhetoric embedded in the same.

This report, from Catholics for Choice, gives an insight into the speakers and goals outlined on the first day at the World Congress of Families in Madrid in 2012. The report covers topics including the selection of anti-choice and homophobic speakers, as well as sessions that worked against UN principles of equality and inclusion.

Authors: Jaris Mujica and Mauricio Cerna for PROMSEX

This report by PROMSEX, hosted by AWID, describes the nexus of religion, politics, and right issues in Peru. It explains the characteristics of fundamentalisms in the country, their impacts on public policy, the descriptions and positions of various religious groups in Peru, and how pro-rights strategies must be geared to face religious fundamentalisms to initiate change.

Author: Elizabeth Placido for Católicas por el Derecho a Decidir, Mexico

This report, by Católicas por el Derecho a Decidir, Mexico, analyzes the impact of Catholic fundamentalisms on the Mexican state. It calls for a constitutional reform to prevent strong influences by the Catholic Church in state affairs, and describes the history of religious fundamentalisms in Mexico, civil society actions to create reforms, and the lessons derived from these actions.

Authors: Carmen Sorrentino for the Luca Coscioni Association

This report, by the Associazione Luca Coscioni and the World Congress for Freedom of Scientific Research, discusses the impact of religion and religious organizations (in Italy, specifically the Vatican and Catholic Church) on public health policy and scientific regulations. This includes impacts on reproductive rights, stem cell research, and assisted reproductive technologies. It also discusses the strategies employed by the Associazione Luca Coscioni to bring attention to, and reform, these issues.

Author: Carmen Hein de Campos for Themis

This report discusses the health issues and rights violations faced by women in Mato Grosso do Sul in Brazil, where abortion is criminalized. It discusses the history and pitfalls of criminalizing abortion, and uses the Mato Grosso do Sul case study to  investigate the numerous rights violations in the region.

Authors: Virginija Aleksejune, Margarita Jankauskaite, and Vilana Pilinkaite-Sotirovics for the Center for Equality Advancement

This report examines fundamentalisms in Lithuania in the context of EU-driven pushes to eliminate discrimination in various forms, and against various groups. It contextualizes the influence of Catholicism, how religion often influences politics, the co-optation of “family” as a figure in fundamentalist discourses, and the role NGOs play in countering fundamentalism in the country.