Pro-life representatives in Ecuador harassed for abandoning official party line

Quito, Ecuador, Apr 2, 2008 / 12:06 pm

Ecuador’s ruling party Acuerdo Pais has launched an aggressive campaign to oust pro-life congresswomen Rossana Queirolo and Diana Acosta from the Constitutional Assembly that is drafting the country’s new constitution.

In recent weeks, Queirolo and Acosta have become the main voices in the Acuerda Pais party to speak out in defense of human life and the protection of marriage as a union between one man and one woman in the text of the new constitution.  Since then, they have become the target of attacks from fellow party members, including Representative Betty Amores, who publicly called on the two to have the “decency” to resign for not sharing the official party position.

Queirolo responded that she was elected “by the people’s mandate and that she would not abandon her personal convictions.  “I am keeping to my position regarding respect for life from conception to death,” she said.

Carlos Polo, director of the Latin American office of the Population Research Institute, called the actions “a grave attack on freedom of thought.  A precedent like this only invalidates the very project of the new constitution.  [President] Correa should realize that going down this road will mean losing the referendum on the final text of the new Constitution.  If Correa is influenced by pro-abortion politicians, the ‘No’ vote on the referendum will be a majority.”

In response to the controversy, Acuerdo Pais published a statement promising to protect life from the moment of conception and to uphold marriage as the union between a man and a woman and to fight discrimination based on “sexual orientation.”