The Guatemalan Congress archives the law that prohibited same-sex marriage, the teaching of sexual diversity in schools and increased penalties for abortion
El The Guatemalan Congress has shelved the controversial bill for the Protection of Life and the Family, which increased the penalties for abortion and prohibited homosexual marriage in the country. With 119 votes in favor of it being filed, Congress did not give way to the measure, which has been harshly criticized by various social sectors, who considered that it violated the rights of citizens.
The initiative 5272 It is a document that has 21 articles and that was planned since 2017, although it became law five years later. His name is "Law for the Protection of Life and Family”. Various organizations like Amnesty International They described this new law as a “serious threat to the lives of women and LGBTI people".
On March 11, the President asked the president of Congress, Shirley Rivera, to file the regulation approved on International Women's Day, considering that violated the Constitution and international conventions signed by Guatemala. On Tuesday, March 15, finally, the legislative project was shelved without any debate between the ruling party and the opposition.
Unconstitutional
The filed law increased the prison sentence from three to ten years for women who commit abortions, without exception for spontaneous abortions. The rule also extended the penalties for doctors and those who facilitate the termination of pregnancy and increased it to 50 years in prison if an abortion was performed without consent and consequently the mother died, a crime that previously carried a sentence of 12 years in prison.
The law also banned same-sex marriage and restricted sex education classes in schools., especially on sexual diversity. Opposition parties and feminist and human rights organizations have warned that the application of the law could lead to the criminalization of spontaneous abortions and increase the risk of hate crimes against people of different sexual orientation.
