Puerto Rico Enacts Law Defining Unborn Children as ‘Human Beings’ in Penal Code

While the new law focuses on homicide statutes, critics say it could have ripple effects beyond that.

Puerto Rico Gov. Jenniffer Gonzalez speaks outside the Capitol in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on Jan. 2, 2025. AP Photo/Alejandro Granadillo, File

Puerto Rico’s Republican governor has signed legislation amending the territory’s Penal Code to recognize a conceived child at any stage of gestation as a human being under certain homicide provisions.

Gov. Jenniffer González-Colón announced on Feb. 12 that she had signed Senate Bill 923 into law. The measure clarifies that, for purposes of specific murder statutes, the term “human being” includes the conceived child at any stage of gestation within the mother’s womb.