Uruguay: Head teacher dismissed over information against abortion

As reported by El Pais on 9 July 2017, a workshop on "responsibility and sexuality" held in School No.1 of the Department of Salto contained information aimed against having abortions. The workshop was run by the Christian-based Pro Vida (Pro Life) Group. Complaints were made by pupils via social media which came to the attention of the authorities. The head mistress was then officially accused not only of allowing the indoctrination of schoolchildren but of violating state secularism. She is now temporarily dismissed with a retention of 50% of her salary. Abortion has been legal in Uruguay since 2012. Rossana Ramirez, persecution analyst at World Watch Research, comments: "This is a clear example of how the term "˜secularism" can be twisted and of how the government seeks to impose its own ideological views. It is ironic that the reason for the dismissal is indoctrination when it is precisely that which the State is trying to do to school-children regarding abortion. We see here how Christian beliefs and the right of expression are being censored. The fact that it was the pupils themselves who initiated the complaint shows the inroads gender philosophy has already made in society."