PIP: Governing administration wants to criminalize abortion

Rep. Adriana Gutiérrez Colón, at lectern, warned of broader implications for public health and human rights. “This is not an isolated measure, but rather it joins other initiatives by the NPP that seek to impose state control over women’s bodies, disregarding public health and human rights considerations,” she said.

By THE STAR STAFF

The Puerto Rican Independence Party (PIP) legislative delegations in the island House and Senate voiced strong opposition Tuesday to Gov. Jenniffer González Colón’s proposal to amend the Penal Code to classify the unborn as a person under the definition of murder.

The initiative, introduced through House Bill 1025 and Senate Bill 923, seeks to modify Article 92 of the Penal Code, which currently defines murder as “the intentional, knowing, or reckless killing of a human being.” The proposed amendment would add that, “for the purposes of this chapter, ‘human being’ shall include the conceived at any stage of gestation within the mother’s womb.”

The bills, originating from La Fortaleza, aim to create a legal conflict with existing provisions of the Penal Code and the precedent set in People v. Duarte, which allows pregnancy terminations for medical reasons, broadly interpreting health.

PIP Senator María de Lourdes Santiago Negrón criticized the measure, saying it represents an attempt to roll back decades of progress on women’s rights.

“The leadership of the New Progressive Party [NPP] has repeatedly declared its intention to completely outlaw women’s right to exercise autonomy over their bodies, and that is precisely the direction they are heading,” Santiago said. “These measures, as we anticipated, come as a consequence of Law 183 of 2025, which grants personhood to the unborn child. The governor and her legislators want to force us to regress decades in the fight for women’s rights; it is not their place to interfere with the most intimate aspect of a woman’s life, threatening her with sentences of up to 99 years in prison.”

Rep. Adriana Gutiérrez Colón echoed those concerns, warning of broader implications for public health and human rights.

“This is not an isolated measure, but rather it joins other initiatives by the NPP that seek to impose state control over women’s bodies, disregarding public health and human rights considerations,” Gutiérrez Colón said. “Given the legal questions that would arise with the approval of these bills, the door is opened to judicial interpretations that could result in extremely serious restrictions on women’s rights. In any case, this possibility could have a deterrent effect, ultimately exposing women to clandestine abortions in unsanitary conditions, risking their lives.”

The PIP legislators also noted that, as highlighted by a group of 300 doctors who opposed Law 183, the punitive approach could expose medical professionals to criminal liability and compromise the confidentiality of medical information.

“In the face of this offensive by the NPP, it is incumbent upon all sectors that defend women’s rights to raise their voices in repudiation of this new attempt to criminalize and imprison for the rest of their lives women who decide to exercise autonomy over their bodies and their lives,” the PIP lawmakers stated.