'Landmark achievement': New Puerto Rico law recognizes unborn children as people from conception
Puerto Rico has enacted a new law that identifies unborn babies as people, giving them the same rights granted to every other human being.
Republican Puerto Rico Gov. Jenniffer Gonzalez-Colon announced in a statement that she signed Senate Bill 504 into law last week. Senate Bill 504 amends the Civil Code of Puerto Rico to clarify that “Every human being is a natural person, including the conceived child at any stage of gestation within the mother’s womb.”
“Every human being has legal personality and capacity from the moment of conception and is a subject of law for all purposes that are favorable to him or her. The inheritance rights that the law recognizes in favor of the unborn child are subject to the event of birth. The representation of the human being in gestation corresponds to whoever will exercise it when he or she is born and, in case of impossibility or incapacity, to a legal representative or court-appointed guardian,” the law states.
The measure lists “examples of the benefits that the unborn child could receive under this new legal framework” as “protection that parents could claim from health insurance companies, in personal injury lawsuits, in donations and property rights, and even in the context of labor rights that their parents could claim on behalf of the unborn child, among others.”
The legislation also declares that “the rights recognized to the unborn child do not diminish the power of the pregnant woman to make decisions about her pregnancy in accordance with the law.” The law went into effect immediately after its approval.
Carol Tobias, president of the pro-life advocacy group National Right to Life, called the bill's passage a "landmark achievement for the pro-life movement."
“Puerto Rico’s clear and courageous recognition of preborn babies as persons reflects a deep respect for life and provides a powerful example for lawmakers throughout the United States," Tobias said in a statement.
“Legal personhood for the preborn is not only consistent with science and human dignity but is the foundation upon which a culture of life can flourish,” she added. “Puerto Rico’s action stands as a compelling reaffirmation that the protection of human life at all stages is a fundamental civil right.”
The Puerto Rico Senate voted 18-6 to pass the legislation in June, while the Puerto Rico House of Representatives backed the measure in a 40-12 vote last month.
According to the Center for Reproductive Rights, a pro-abortion advocacy group, Puerto Rico law allows abortion to preserve the health of the mother, which includes mental health. A report compiled by the pro-abortion advocacy group Pregnancy Justice notes that several U.S. states have laws similar to Senate Bill 504 on the books. The group claims such laws elevate "embryonic and fetal rights over the rights of women and pregnant people."
The research conducted by Pregnancy Justice reveals that, as of September 2024, Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Utah and Wyoming have the broadest personhood provisions that contain explicit protections for unborn children while Kentucky, Louisiana, Ohio, South Dakota and Texas include fetuses under the definition of the term “person” in the state criminal code.
Alaska and Wyoming both have statutes on the books declaring that the term “unborn child” refers to “a member of the species Homo sapiens, at any stage of development, who is carried in the womb” as it pertains to victims of certain criminal offenses.
Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com
