Puerto Rico has passed a new law that identifies the unborn as people, allowing them to have the same rights as those born. Puerto Rico Gov. Jenniffer Gonzalez-Colon, a Republican, signed Senate Bill 504, which amends the Civil Code to recognize the unborn as a “natural person for all purposes that are favorable both during the gestation period and after birth,” reads a bill description.
“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 law says, as reported by The Christian Post. “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.”
Carol Tobias, President of National Right to Life, celebrated the move, calling it a “landmark achievement for the pro-life movement” and asserting that “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. 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.”
In July, Gonzalez-Colon signed a bill banning sex-change surgeries and hormone therapy for those under the age of 21. The effort sought to “protect the physical and emotional integrity of children and adolescents” and prohibited “medical practices that may generate irreversible consequences in [their] natural development.”
