Guatemalan Congress Ups Prison Sentence for Abortions
They also banned same-sex marriage
HAVANA TIMES – In Guatemala, activists took to the streets Wednesday to condemn a new bill which would increase prison sentences for people who have an abortion to 10 years. The law was approved by Congress on Tuesday, International Women’s Day. It also bans same-sex marriage and teaching about sexual identity in schools. Guatemala’s conservative president Alejandro Giammattei is expected to sign the measure into law. This is human rights lawyer Stephanie Rodriguez.
Stephanie Rodriguez: “As a lawyer who has worked for several years on women’s rights, we are concerned about the criminalization of women, derived from two issues: one is that abortion is criminalized with penalties much higher than the current ones. On the other hand, they also criminalize spontaneous or natural abortions.”