Contact: Don Feder, Director, WCF Communications, 508-405-1337, dfeder@rcn.com; The World Congress of Families, 815-964-5819, media@worldcongress.org, media@profam.org

ROCKFORD, Ill., Jan. 21, 2014 /Christian Newswire/ -- World Congress of Families Managing Director Larry Jacobs said natural family advocates everywhere are "greatly encouraged by developments in Spain and Ecuador that cut across the ideological spectrum."

Spain's conservative government, elected in 2011, is moving to fulfill its campaign promise to begin protecting unborn children, while Ecuador's socialist president has roundly rejected the gender ideology fashionable in elitist circles.

"This demonstrates that reverence for life and an appreciation for the centrality of the natural family shouldn't be restricted by political affiliation," Jacobs observed. "They should be above politics because they speak to the essential human condition and the survival of civilization."

In Spain, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has proposed, and his cabinet has approved, a new law which will dismantle the abortion regime established by the Zapatero government. Among other salutary measures, the proposed law would limit abortion to the first 12 weeks (and then only in cases of rape or grave risk to a mother's health), transform abortion from a right to a crime excusable in certain circumstances, and require parental consent for a minor who meets the other criteria.

World Congress of Families VI was held in Madrid in 2012.  Organizer Ignacio Arsuaga, president of WCF Partner HazteOir, helped to hold the government to its pro-life pledge.

In September, Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa, a socialist, threatened to resign if the legislature controlled by his party legalized abortion. Bowing to this pressure, the bill was withdrawn.

In his last public address of 2013, Correa roundly rejected the gender agenda of sexual radicals as "absurd" and "very dangerous." 

He explained that the doctrine of gender fluidity is based on the dogma, "that natural men and women don't exist, that biological sex does not determine man or woman, but 'social conditions' do, and that one has a right to choose if one is a man or a woman." These "ideologies" exist "to justify the lifestyle of those who generate them," the Ecuadoran leader noted. "We are, thank God, men and women, different," "complementary," Correa added.

"We should also add our thanks to Spanish President Mariano Rajoy and to Ecuador's President Rafael Correra," Jacobs observed. "Here are two men representing very different political traditions who are united in their defense of the natural family."

World Congress of Families VIII with the theme "Every Child A Gift: Large Families, the Future of Humanity" will be held in Moscow, September 10-12, 2014.  The opening session of WCF VIII will be in the Congress Hall of the Kremlin Palace.  A special WCF parliamentary session will also be held in the Russian Duma and a special scientific forum at Lomonosov Moscow State University.   The closing ceremony will be held at Moscow's Christ the Savior Cathedral -- the tallest Orthodox Cathedral in the world.   For more information visit the Russian websites at www.worldcongress.ru and www.familypolicy.ru.

For more information on World Congress of Families, visit www.worldcongress.org. To schedule an interview with Larry Jacobs, contact Don Feder at 508-405-1337 or dfeder@rcn.com.

What is the Howard Center?  The Howard Center for Family, Religion and Society (www.profam.org) is located in Rockford, Illinois and is an independent, non-profit research and education center that provides sound scholarship and effective strategies to affirm and defend the natural family, thus renewing a stable and free society.  The Howard Center is the publisher of the journal, "The Family In America" and is also the organizer of the World Congress of Families (WCF) project which is an international network of pro-family organizations, scholars, leaders and inter-faith people of goodwill from more than 80 countries that seek to restore the natural family as the fundamental social unit and the ‘seedbed’ of civil society (as found in the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948).  The WCF was founded in 1997 by Dr. Allan Carlson, President of The Howard Center.  To date, there have been five World Congresses of Families -- Prague (1997), Geneva (1999), Mexico City (2004), Warsaw, Poland (2007) and Amsterdam, The Netherlands (2009).  World Congress of Families VI was held in Madrid, Spain in May 25-27, 2012.  World Congress of Families VII was held in Sydney, Australia, May 15-18, 2013, www.wcfsydney2013.org.au.  WCF VIII Moscow 2014 will be held September 10-12 in the Kremlin. www.worldcongress.ru