Parliament votes overwhelmingly to amend constitution.Slovakia has become the seventh member state of the European Union to officially clarify that marriage is the union between a man and a woman.
Members of Parliament from the Social-Democrat and Christian-Democrat parties voted overwhelmingly on Wednesday to define marriage as a “unique bond between a man and a woman” in the nation’s Constitution.
Only 18 parliamentarians voted against the amendment, while 102 voted in favor.
In fact, the Constitution was amended to make attempts to redefine marriage less likely in the future, according to J.C. von Krempach, writing at Turtle Bay and Beyond, the blog of the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute.
“This amendment seeks to go further than banning same-sex ‘marriages,’” von Krepach explains. “Its explanatory referendum specifies that ‘it will be impossible for the rights and duties associated with marriage to be conferred in any way other than a legally recognised union between a man and a woman.’”
He said that any form of union for same-sex couples would be banned.
“With this amendment, Slovakia follows a trend among European countries: it is the seventh EU Member State (after Bulgaria, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Hungary, and Croatia) to have enacted such a clarification, belying false assertions (e.g. by the ideologically biased European Court of Human Rights) that there is a general trend towards recognition of same-sex ‘marriages’ in Europe.”
