{"id":336594,"date":"2025-08-24T13:33:25","date_gmt":"2025-08-24T18:33:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=336594"},"modified":"2025-08-22T17:55:55","modified_gmt":"2025-08-22T22:55:55","slug":"dominican-republican-pro-life-laws","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/dominican-republican-pro-life-laws\/","title":{"rendered":"Dominican Republic pro-life laws stand, despite pro-abortion pressure"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div><p>Lawmakers in the Dominican Republic have maintained the country&#8217;s commitment to the protection of preborn children in its new Penal Code, despite heavy pressure to legalize abortion.<\/p>\n<h2>Key Takeaways:<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Lawmakers in the Dominican Republic passed a new Penal Code that upheld the protection of preborn children from abortion.<\/li>\n<li>Pro-abortion groups had been pushing to allow induced abortion (intentional killing of a preborn child) in cases of rape, incest, fetal anomaly, and life of the mother.<\/li>\n<li>Abortion groups have been actively working to expand abortion in Latin America for years.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>The Details:<\/h2>\n<p>The Catholic Herald <a href=\"https:\/\/thecatholicherald.com\/article\/dominican-republic-resists-global-pressure-upholds-unborns-right-to-life?fbclid=IwY2xjawMP3SdleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFqbzZRYjNZcVgxUTBlT3RhAR5sKcGalh_imw_h4_A5B-boUEzWCqeiDqmDQGby2uHw5R_9JNwwW8RwFJKIYA_aem_axMuXx6XlTEqk3pqxhZsVg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">reported<\/a> that on July 31, the Dominican Republic Chamber of Duties voted 159 to 4 in favor of a new Penal Code, which made changes to many of the country&#8217;s laws \u2014 including establishing penalties for femicide, cybercrime, and economic violence. Despite these changes and a heavy push from abortion advocates there was no change to the country&#8217;s law protecting preborn children from abortion. The new Code was signed into law on August 3 by President Luis Abinader.<\/p>\n<p>ZENIT News <a href=\"https:\/\/zenit.org\/2025\/08\/13\/dominican-republic-holds-firm-on-absolute-abortion-ban-despite-global-pressure\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">described<\/a> the vote as an undeniable pro-life victory, writing, &#8220;On July 31, 2025, the nation&#8217;s legislature delivered a decisive message: life in the Dominican Republic remains protected from conception to natural death \u2014 without exceptions.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ: <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/doctors-pressured-pregnant-mom-cancer-abort-research\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>Doctors pressured pregnant mom with cancer to abort, despite what research reveals<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Abortion advocates worked hard to update the Penal Code to allow abortion exceptions in cases of fetal anomaly, rape, incest, or if the life of the mother was at risk. According to ZENIT, the pro-abortion forces included a coalition of more than 20 feminist organizations as well as larger organizations like the Latin American Consortium Against Unsafe Abortion, the International Planned Parenthood Federation, and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, among others.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/zVk1qM1El9o?si=rtBhlX3hD638EwjF\" width=\"640\" height=\"355\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Attorney Loren Montalvo of Alliance Defending Freedom in Santo Domingo said that abortion proponents have been working for years to try and change the law.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis fight [for the unborn] has lasted decades,\u201d explained attorney Loren Montalvo of Alliance Defending Freedom in Santo Domingo. \u201cThey tried through the Health Code, then through the Penal Code. But every attempt\u00a0ran into Article 37 of our Constitution.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>Why It Matters:<\/h2>\n<p>The Dominican Republic remains one of only a handful of Latin American countries that continues to protect preborn children from abortion, despite widespread pressure from pro-abortion groups. In 2014, President Danilo Medina <a href=\"https:\/\/reproductiverights.org\/dominican-republic-constitutional-court-repeals-abortion-law\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">signed<\/a> an amended Penal Code, which allowed abortion in cases of rape, incest, or fetal anomaly, only for pro-life groups to appeal, and the amendment to be ruled unconstitutional.<\/p>\n<p>Abortion groups have been working for years to expand abortion throughout Latin America \u2014 and in many cases, they have been successful.<\/p>\n<p>Carlos Polo, director of the Latin American office of the Population Research Institute, told Zenit News that the fight is far from over.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAll these groups\u2014local, regional, and international\u2014coordinate to push abortion in Latin America,\u201d he said. &#8220;In the Dominican Republic, they saw the Penal Code reform as their moment. They failed, but they will try again.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><b><i>Follow Live Action News on\u00a0<\/i><\/b><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveactionnewsonline\/\"><b><i>Facebook<\/i><\/b><\/a><b><i>\u00a0and\u00a0<\/i><\/b><a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/LiveActionOrg\/\"><b><i>Instagram<\/i><\/b><\/a><b><i> for more pro-life news.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lawmakers in the Dominican Republic have maintained the country&#8217;s commitment to the protection of preborn children in its new Penal Code, despite heavy pressure to legalize abortion. Key Takeaways: Lawmakers in the Dominican Republic passed a new Penal Code that upheld the protection of preborn children from abortion. Pro-abortion groups had been pushing to allow [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":607,"featured_media":245091,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[5,3473],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Dominican Republic pro-life laws stand, despite pro-abortion pressure<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Despite pro-abortion pressure, lawmakers in the Dominican Republic voted overwhelmingly to keep pro-life laws in the new Penal Code.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/dominican-republican-pro-life-laws\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" 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