Ginés González García

File:Ginés González García.jpg

Ginés González García

Ginés González García (born 1945) is a medical doctor and was the Minister of Health and Environment of Argentina during the administrations of Presidents Eduardo Duhalde and Néstor Kirchner.

Career

González García was born in San Nicolás de los Arroyos, Buenos Aires Province, and graduated as a surgeon at the National University of Córdoba. He first entered public service as the Minister of Health of Buenos Aires Province from 1988 to 1991. He was appointed Argentina's Minister of Health in January 2002, days after the congressional appointment of interim President Eduardo Duhalde, and ratified in his post by President Néstor Kirchner upon taking office in May 2003.

Minister of Health

González García became the focus of a controversy in February 2005, when he was verbally attacked by the head military chaplain, Bishop Antonio Baseotto, because of the minister's public support of the legalization of abortion in Argentina (where interrupting a pregnancy is a serious crime except when the mother's life is in grave danger, or in cases of rape of a mentally impaired woman), as well as his endorsement of sex education and his implementation of a program of free contraception and condom distribution programs. The dispute underscored both the influence of the Roman Catholic Church in Argentina, as well as the factious nature of local church-state relations themselves.

Though González García was not retained in his post by Kirchner's wife and successor, Cristina Kirchner, when she took office in December 2007, and was instead appointed Ambassador to Chile, he was influential in the appointment of a new health minister, Juan Luis Manzur, in July 2009.

External links

• Ministerio de Salud y Ambiente (Argentina's Health and Environment Ministry website; in Spanish)