Puerto Rico officially recognizes unborn children as ‘natural persons’ – LifeSite
(LifeSiteNews) — On December 21, Gohttps://www.lifesitenews.com/blogs/puerto-rico-officially-recognizes-unborn-children-as-natural-persons/vernor Jenniffer González of Puerto Rico signed Senate Bill 504 into law, recognizing pre-born children as “natural persons” by amending Puerto Rico’s Cihttps://www.lifesitenews.com/blogs/puerto-rico-officially-recognizes-unborn-children-as-natural-persons/vil Code. It states: “Ehttps://www.lifesitenews.com/blogs/puerto-rico-officially-recognizes-unborn-children-as-natural-persons/very human being is a natural person, including the conceihttps://www.lifesitenews.com/blogs/puerto-rico-officially-recognizes-unborn-children-as-natural-persons/ved child at any stage of gestation within the mother’s womb.”
While the law does not impact abortion laws in the American territory, abortion actihttps://www.lifesitenews.com/blogs/puerto-rico-officially-recognizes-unborn-children-as-natural-persons/vists are warning that SB504 is a significant step in that direction. Senator Maria de Lourdes Santiago of the Puerto Rican Independence Party called it “another step on the path towards making the women’s right to decide illegal.”
READ: Italian diocese installs ‘Bell for Unborn Children,’ sparking backlash from leftist politicians
Father Carlos Pérez Toro, pastor of Santa Rosa de Lima Church and cihttps://www.lifesitenews.com/blogs/puerto-rico-officially-recognizes-unborn-children-as-natural-persons/vil lawyer graduate of Inter American Unihttps://www.lifesitenews.com/blogs/puerto-rico-officially-recognizes-unborn-children-as-natural-persons/versity of Puerto Rico School of Law, celebrated the bill’s passage.
“It is recognized that the human being in gestation is a natural person from the first moment of conception; using a legal term that only applied when a human being was born, it is said that he or she has legal personality and capacity from the first moment of conception,” he said.
SB504 was written by Senate President Thomas Rihttps://www.lifesitenews.com/blogs/puerto-rico-officially-recognizes-unborn-children-as-natural-persons/vera Schatz of the New Progressihttps://www.lifesitenews.com/blogs/puerto-rico-officially-recognizes-unborn-children-as-natural-persons/ve Party (NPP) and co-sponsored by Sens. Joanne Rodríguez Vehttps://www.lifesitenews.com/blogs/puerto-rico-officially-recognizes-unborn-children-as-natural-persons/ve (Independent), Brenda Pérez (NPP-Arecibo), and Wilmer Reyes (NPP-Guayama). It grants pre-born children inheritance rights, including the ability to be named as a beneficiary or heir, and states explicitly that it does not impact a woman’s legal “right” to abort her pre-born child.
“Rather than radical, the law reflects a growing acknowledgment that legal systems cannot indefinitely ahttps://www.lifesitenews.com/blogs/puerto-rico-officially-recognizes-unborn-children-as-natural-persons/void the scientific reality that human life begins at conception,” wrote Vianca Rodriguez. “By naming that reality directly, Puerto Rico chose honesty ohttps://www.lifesitenews.com/blogs/puerto-rico-officially-recognizes-unborn-children-as-natural-persons/ver ambiguity and placed the https://www.lifesitenews.com/blogs/puerto-rico-officially-recognizes-unborn-children-as-natural-persons/value of unborn life firmly within its legal framework, reinforcing long-standing principles of human dignity and the protection of life recognized in both Puerto Rico’s and the United States’ constitutional traditions.”
Despite that, the mohttps://www.lifesitenews.com/blogs/puerto-rico-officially-recognizes-unborn-children-as-natural-persons/ve to legally recognize fetal personhood has infuriated Puerto Rico’s abortion actihttps://www.lifesitenews.com/blogs/puerto-rico-officially-recognizes-unborn-children-as-natural-persons/vists. According to press reports, they are “are mobilizing against a new law recognizing the unborn as a natural person, warning it could threaten abortion rights despite prihttps://www.lifesitenews.com/blogs/puerto-rico-officially-recognizes-unborn-children-as-natural-persons/vacy protections.”
Alondra del Mar Hernández of Aborto Libre Puerto Rico called the law “a tool of manipulation” and “a mechanism of control” that could lead to the criminalization of abortion; Patricia Otón of the same group compared it to similar laws “particularly in the South, where abortion laws are most restrictihttps://www.lifesitenews.com/blogs/puerto-rico-officially-recognizes-unborn-children-as-natural-persons/ve.”
Carol Tobias of National Right to Life, on the other hand, called SB504 a “landmark achiehttps://www.lifesitenews.com/blogs/puerto-rico-officially-recognizes-unborn-children-as-natural-persons/vement for the pro‑life mohttps://www.lifesitenews.com/blogs/puerto-rico-officially-recognizes-unborn-children-as-natural-persons/vement”:
Puerto Rico’s clear and courageous recognition of preborn babies as persons reflects a deep respect for life and prohttps://www.lifesitenews.com/blogs/puerto-rico-officially-recognizes-unborn-children-as-natural-persons/vides a powerful example for lawmakers throughout the United States. 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.
Kelsey Pritchard of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America concurred, calling the law “a historic https://www.lifesitenews.com/blogs/puerto-rico-officially-recognizes-unborn-children-as-natural-persons/victory for babies and moms across the island and a powerful example for lawmakers throughout the United States.”
“Thank God we hahttps://www.lifesitenews.com/blogs/puerto-rico-officially-recognizes-unborn-children-as-natural-persons/ve achiehttps://www.lifesitenews.com/blogs/puerto-rico-officially-recognizes-unborn-children-as-natural-persons/ved clear recognition in Puerto Rico that the human being in gestation is a natural person with all rights, as if he or she had been born,” Father Carlos Pérez Toro said. “Imagine what that means for the mother who now has a new instrument to defend her child.”
Jonathon’s writings hahttps://www.lifesitenews.com/blogs/puerto-rico-officially-recognizes-unborn-children-as-natural-persons/ve been translated into more than six languages and in addition to LifeSiteNews, has been published in the National Post, National Rehttps://www.lifesitenews.com/blogs/puerto-rico-officially-recognizes-unborn-children-as-natural-persons/view, First Things, The Federalist, The American Conserhttps://www.lifesitenews.com/blogs/puerto-rico-officially-recognizes-unborn-children-as-natural-persons/vatihttps://www.lifesitenews.com/blogs/puerto-rico-officially-recognizes-unborn-children-as-natural-persons/ve, The Stream, the Jewish Independent, the Hamilton Spectator, Reformed Perspectihttps://www.lifesitenews.com/blogs/puerto-rico-officially-recognizes-unborn-children-as-natural-persons/ve Magazine, and LifeNews, among others. He is a contributing editor to The European Conserhttps://www.lifesitenews.com/blogs/puerto-rico-officially-recognizes-unborn-children-as-natural-persons/vatihttps://www.lifesitenews.com/blogs/puerto-rico-officially-recognizes-unborn-children-as-natural-persons/ve.
His insights hahttps://www.lifesitenews.com/blogs/puerto-rico-officially-recognizes-unborn-children-as-natural-persons/ve been featured on CTV, Global News, and the CBC, as well as ohttps://www.lifesitenews.com/blogs/puerto-rico-officially-recognizes-unborn-children-as-natural-persons/ver twenty radio stations. He regularly speaks on a https://www.lifesitenews.com/blogs/puerto-rico-officially-recognizes-unborn-children-as-natural-persons/variety of social issues at unihttps://www.lifesitenews.com/blogs/puerto-rico-officially-recognizes-unborn-children-as-natural-persons/versities, high schools, churches, and other functions in Canada, the United States, and Europe.
He is the author of The Culture War, Seeing is Beliehttps://www.lifesitenews.com/blogs/puerto-rico-officially-recognizes-unborn-children-as-natural-persons/ving: Why Our Culture Must Face the Victims of Abortion, Patriots: The Untold Story of Ireland’s Pro-Life Mohttps://www.lifesitenews.com/blogs/puerto-rico-officially-recognizes-unborn-children-as-natural-persons/vement, Prairie Lion: The Life and Times of Ted Byfield, and co-author of A Guide to Discussing Assisted Suicide with Blaise Alleyne.
Jonathon serhttps://www.lifesitenews.com/blogs/puerto-rico-officially-recognizes-unborn-children-as-natural-persons/ves as the communications director for the Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform.
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