Italian fertility referendum fails by large margin News
Italian fertility referendum fails by large margin

[JURIST] A referendum [JURIST report] to liberalize Italy's assisted-fertility laws has failed due to low voter turnout. The two-day referendum [official site, in Italian] needed over 50 percent turnout for its results to count, but only 18.7 percent voted Sunday and early figures reported by the Italian Interior Ministry after the polls closed at 3 PM Rome time Monday suggested a final turnout of only 26% [Interior Ministry figures], far short of what was required for any result to be binding. The Catholic Church had urged people to boycott the referendum in support of current laws [Telegraph report], which ban sperm and egg cell donation and embryo research. AP has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

South Africa becomes first country on continent to legalize same-sex marriage

Same-sex marriages became legal in South Africa on November 30, 2006 as the country's Civil Union Act, 2006 went into effect, making South Africa the only country on the African continent to legalize same-sex marriage. Read the Civil Union Act, 2006.