Puerto Rico prohibits abortion from fetal viability

On June 21, just a few days before the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the Senate of Puerto Rico resolved to approve Bill 693 which prohibits abortion from the 22^nd week which is considered the limit of fetal viability. It was approved by 16 votes in favor, 9 against, 1 abstention and 1 absentee vote.

You can see some notes here:

Joanne Rodríguez Veve, a proponent of the bill, recalled during the debate that the Constitution of Puerto Rico recognizes the right to life from the moment of conception and that the 1954 Constituent Assembly expressly established this right to prevent abortion. This was pointed out at the time:

“If they were not included in the constitution which recognizes the right to life as the fundamental right of a human being, they would have no protection, those beings who, not yet being born because they are still in the mother’s womb, have rights that must be recognized in all the constitutions of the world”.

The entire speech is available on the link below.

CitizenGO mobilized citizens through an online campaign with more than 7,000 supporters.

The approved bill allows for exceptions and was widely debated. However, the proposing senator, Joanne Rodriguez Veve, regretted that the abortionists did not want to negotiate anything. Anything less than abortion without cause and without a time limit would be unacceptable and non-negotiable. Pitiful!

Because until the passage of the law, there was at least one abortion center in Puerto Rico that performed abortions up to the sixth month. And as they have publicly acknowledged, they do so without asking the mother for the reason for wanting to terminate. Nothing. They simply perform the procedure and charge the costs…

During the debate, several children of 4 and 9 years old who were born at 22 and 24 weeks of gestation were present in the Senate of Puerto Rico. Children who could have been aborted in Puerto Rico according to current practice.

Of course the goal is zero abortion and the total projection of human life. But this is a step forward that also shows well the sense of the people of Puerto Rico. This was pointed out by the proposing senator:

“I speak as a woman who identifies with the vast majority of Puerto Rican women who would be here as the voice of the babies in the womb. (…) I personally believe in the defense of life from conception. But today I am willing to favor Senate Bill 693.”

Abortionists have been crying foul: if there has ever been a step backwards in rights, this is it, blah, blah, blah. This is how they shouted:

“Murderers are you. Women die in clandestine abortions.”

The reality is that a woman who is further off than five months pregnant and wishes to have an abortion will have to wait a few weeks and will be able to give her baby up for adoption, but she will not be able to kill her baby as has been possible until now.

Therefore, the senator concludes as follows:

“As a woman I do not seek to judge those who have made the decision to have an abortion or those who are thinking of having one, but rather I seek to let them know that there are others who are willing to help them. Today I speak as a Puerto Rican woman who has engendered and given birth to a homeland in each of my children. Today I speak as a woman rooted in the moral fiber of this people who sows life in the earth and protects life in the womb. Today I speak as a woman who mourns death and celebrates life. Democracy must never be at the service of death. And today it is up to us, through the democratic exercise of voting, but above all, from the breadth of our hearts, to defend the lives of those who cannot do it for themselves.”

Tags: Abortion abortion legislation fetal viability puerto rico right to life