Lawmakers in Peru have passed a bill that guarantees protection for pregnant women and preborn children, a marked difference in Latin America when abortion advocacy has been growing.
ACI Prensa reported that a measure from Congresswoman Rosangela Barbarán of the Fuerza Popular (Popular Force) party was approved March 13th in a 87-18 vote, and has been sent to President Dina Boluarte to be signed. The bill mandates “the protection of the pregnancy, the pregnant mother, the unborn child, and their family environment.” Last November, lawmakers also overwhelmingly passed a law recognizing that preborn children have a constitutional right to life.
Carlos Polo, the director of the Latin American Office of the Population Research Institute, told ACI Prensa that a celebration will be held on March 25th, the Day of the Unborn Child in Peru, in appreciation that “Congress established by law that the state protects both lives.”
READ: More than 100,000 people participate in Peru’s pro-life parade
Under the legislation, health care professionals, as well as the government itself, are required to provide protection during pregnancy, childbirth, and the postpartum period. It also recognizes the rights of fathers throughout the pregnancy process, and the right of preborn children to be born “in a healthy, decent, and safe environment.”
Additionally, Polo said it keeps any organization from being able to “use the penal code as an excuse to say that in Peru there is the right to ‘therapeutic abortion’ and that it’s legal.”
Currently, abortion is only permitted in Peru if it is necessary to save the life of the mother, or to prevent serious harm to her health, though there have been allegations that unnecessary therapeutic abortions are being committed on minors who are victims of sexual abuse.
Polo said the legislation will also prevent pro-abortion advocacy from affecting Peru the way it has other Latin American countries, saying, “Nor will they be able to continue citing the disastrous ruling of the Inter-American Court in the case of Artavia Murillo v. Costa Rica, which says that the life and health of the mother is more important than the life of the conceived child.”
