Puerto Rico governor signs bill recognizing unborn babies as human beings

Puerto Rico’s Republican governor on Thursday signed a bill that amends a law to recognize an unborn baby as a human being, which opponents argued could eventually lead to outlawing abortion in the U.S. territory.

Gov. Jenniffer González said in a statement that the measure “aims to maintain consistency between civil and criminal provisions by recognizing the unborn child as a human being.”

The amendment, in Senate Bill 923, altered an article within Puerto Rico’s Penal Code that defines murder.

The government said that the amendment complements a law affirming that it would be first-degree murder if a suspect intentionally and knowingly kills a pregnant woman, resulting in the death of the conceived child at any stage of gestation.

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The legislation was named after Keishla Rodríguez, a pregnant woman who was killed in April 2021. Her partner, former Puerto Rican boxer Félix Verdejo, was convicted in the killing and received two life sentences.

Supporters of the law said it was designed to provide consistency between civil and criminal codes and focus on harsher punishments for the murder of pregnant women and that it was unrelated to abortion, but critics argued that it opens the door to eventually criminalizing the procedure in Puerto Rico, which remains legal.

“A zygote was given legal personality,” Rosa Seguí Cordero, an attorney and spokesperson for the National Campaign for Free, Safe and Accessible Abortion in Puerto Rico, told The Associated Press. “We women were stripped of our rights.”

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Dr. Carlos Díaz Vélez, president of Puerto Rico’s College of Medical Surgeons, contends that the new law would lead to “defensive health care,” in which doctors may refuse to treat complicated pregnancies for fear of criminal prosecution on murder charges.

“This will bring complex clinical decisions into the realm of criminal law,” he told The Associated Press, adding that it would bring “disastrous consequences.”

Díaz said the amended law also allows a third person to intervene between a doctor and a pregnant woman, which violates privacy laws. He also said new protocols and regulations would need to be implemented.

“The system is not prepared for this,” he said.

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Opponents of the law also said the amendment was approved without public hearings.

“There is no doubt that the measure did not undergo adequate analysis before its approval and leaves an unacceptable space for ambiguity regarding civil rights,” Annette Martínez Orabona, executive director for the American Civil Liberties Union in Puerto Rico, told The Associated Press. “The legislative leadership failed to fulfill its responsibility to the people, and so did the governor.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.