Journalists funded by Planned Parenthood create 'black list' of Argentine pro-lifers

Pro-life demonstrator in Argentina | Photo: @connox.ph - Unidad Provida

Buenos Aires, Argentina, Jun 15, 2021 / 12:50 pm (CNA).

On Sunday a group of journalists from Argentina, financed by the International Planned Parenthood Federation, published a "black list” with people, political parties, and organizations that are for the most part pro-life.

The group of journalists posted on its "Conservative Reaction” website the photographs, biographies, and political affiliation of each of the almost 400 names that make up the list, many of whom oppose the new abortion law enacted in Argentina in December 2020, and also gender ideology.

Users of the website could search by activity (officials, young influencer, legislator, religious leader, media outlet, NGO, political party, think tanks, spokesperson); by place (Argentine province); or by name.

Among those included in the “black list” are Agustín Laje, Nicolás Márquez, Lawyers for Life, Doctors for Life, Youth Front, Alliance Defending Freedom, Gabriel Ballerini, the Argentine Bishops’ Conference, Senator Silvia Elías de Pérez , Faro Films, Pro-Life Unity, Congresswoman Dina Rezinovsky, Raúl Magnasco, Ayelen Alancay, Camila Duro, Alejandro Williams Becker, Fr. Leandro Bonnin, and Dr. Maria José Mancino.

The website went live June 13, but was inaccessible as of June 14.

The takedown of the site coincides with the pushback it received on social media and in public opinion. On Twitter, the hashtag #LaGestapoArgentina began to go viral.

The journalists who created the "black list", Ingrid Beck, Flor Alcaraz, Paula Hernández, Paula Rodríguez, Juan Elman, and Soledad Vallejos, restricted access to their profiles and Twitter comments.

The Argentine news outlet DiarioAR, reported that International Planned Parenthood Federation / Western Hemisphere Region “committed to cover the costs for five months, in addition to the programming and development of the website.”

According to DiarioAR, the journalists' work was designed to “see how this conservative movement works together in Argentina in different areas: training cadres of young people, lobbying the legislature, strategic litigation, social media, the influence of evangelicals, the Catholic right - more or less masked in secular organizations and academic circles - to obstruct sexual and reproductive rights or to fight against 'gender ideology' as a common front.”

The compilation of this "black list" was condemned by several Argentine legislators, mostly from Juntos por el Cambio, whose names were included.

Congresswoman Dina Rezinovsky introduced a resolution June 14, signed by more than 20 legislators, to express "their great concern and repudiation for the creation of the reaccionconservadora.net site."

“Among the names that appear on the lists, there are almost all the representatives and senators of Juntos por el Cambio, who voted against the law on the Voluntary Interruption of Pregnancy. In the profile details, they are accused of being ‘anti-rights’ and of introducing bills that are ‘opposed to the women's rights agenda and gender concepts,” Rezinovsky said.

The congresswoman also decried that the "black list" includes "the names of Twitter users who are between 18 and 20 years old, mostly called influencers because they have a couple of thousand followers … There are also a few pastors and churches, doctors, lawyers, political scientists, church-run schools, news outlets, journalists and political parties.”

Rezinovsky said that Argentina lives "in a democracy and these practices take us back to dark times in our history that we should not allow to be repeated."

Lawmakers Walter Ghione, Nicolás F. Mayoraz, Juan Arganaraz and Natalia Armas Be lavi from Santa Fe province also spoke out, expressing their “strong repudiation and concern regarding the publication of a black list of people and organizations that work for the defense of the dignity of the unborn child, posted on the reaccionconservadora.net website, and financed by the multinational abortion clinics company IPPF-WHR.”

Also criticizing the blacklist were former Minister of Defense and Economy and former presidential candidate Ricardo López Murphy, who "strongly opposed the appearance of a website whose sole objective is to persecute those who think differently.”