Over 400 pro-life individuals and organisations have been placed on an online abortion “blacklist” in Argentina. The website, funded by the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), was later taken down after a considerable backlash.
The pro-abortion website Reacción Conservadora (Conservative Reaction), funded by the IPPF, published its online blacklist of pro-lifers in Argentina on 15 June.
The site listed anti-abortion persons and groups, including politicians, academics, journalists and doctors, as well as a nominee for the Nobel peace prize and an individual currently being considered for sainthood.
The interactive online list immediately provoked the hashtag #GestapoArgentina – likening the blacklist to the methods of Argentina’s military dictatorship between 1974 and 1983, when thousands of its political opponents “disappeared”.
The backlash to the website was so great that it was taken down within hours of its launch.
One blacklisted individual, Maria Ines Franck, co-director of the Bioethics Centre at Argentina’s Pontifical University, later commented that it was satisfying “at least be noticed by people who until recently, ignored us”, though much of the personal information listed was wrong.
Others have suggested that the website violated Argentine law, specifically the Personal Data Protection Law, prohibiting the promulgation of sensitive information.
Last December, abortion was legalised in Argentina after considerable opposition by pro-life Argentinians, as well as Catholic bishops, who deemed the legalisation “untenable and inappropriate”.
SPUC comment
A SPUC spokesperson said: “However inaccurate this blacklist was, it is a sinister development, intended to intimidate prominent pro-lifers and put off others from opposing abortion publicly.
“While this list is a roll call of honour, listing brave pro-life individuals and organisations that have stood up for women and the unborn, the motives and morality of the IPPF in funding this website must be questioned.
“The people of Argentina know only too well where such blacklists lead. At a time when free speech is increasingly under threat, at home and abroad, this blatant misuse of technology and information is chilling.”
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