Brody's Notes... Italian Facebook Page Urged Aborting 'Gay Unborn Children'

Screenshot of Facebook page calling for abortion of Gay Fetuses

By Brody Levesque | ROME, ITALY -- An Italian language Facebook Page- opened this past month on June 19- with a declaration that “Aborting a gay (fetus) is an act of faith,” has generated a storm of controversy and more than 2,000 comments, most of which were critical of what has been labeled a "new low" in online homophobia.

A company spokesperson at its international headquarters in Dublin, Ireland, acknowledged that Facebook has since removed the page which had opened with this false statement: “[...]Thanks to the miracle of science we are able to impede (homosexuality)…Yes, I know that it is terrible to abort the poor babies affected by the gene of sodomy. But it is the lesser evil.”

The Roman daily newspaper La Repubblica reported the page contained in an announcement that "Too many, too many people have been misled by the false morality of the Sodomites." The paper also notes that updates followed with bogus reports of scientific studies that could determine homosexuality in the unborn, and invented would-be mothers adding posts about having to decide to abort after finding out their baby would be gay.

The worst, however, is related to the connections that the creators of this page allege they have with some hospitals and researchers.

"The remaining fetuses were strangled by umbilical cords of fetuses which are definitely homosexual in nature," - was written in an entry dated on June 24 - claiming that this is the testimony of a respected friend and fellow researcher.

The Facebook spokesperson said that the company closed the page after a week of protests from civil rights groups and politicians. “I put myself in the shoes of young gay people who must read these things,” Paola Concia, a member of the Italian Parliament, told La Repubblica.

LGBTQ equality rights activists said that Italy has no law specifically punishing acts of homophobia. "From day it was opened we receive many complaints about this page," said Aurelio Mancuso, president of Equality Italia. "In this case, besides the issue of homophobia, there is that incitement to abortion. It's a subject so delicate and painful for women, which can not be used in such offensive terms.
I do not know if the anonymous operators of the page are really aware of this tremendous mix of misogyny, homophobia and prejudice, and once again, there suffers the absence of a law against homophobia."
Mancuso adds that in another country, a page of that kind would be not only just closed immediately but its drafters would be prosecuted.
Fabrizio Marrazzo, executive director of the Rome LGBT Centre said;
"It's a classic example of the need to extend the Mancino law on homosexual persons. We face a hate speech that should be prosecuted ex officio by the authorities. The Mancino law today, protects minorities of race and different religion, and does not consider sexual orientation."