Guatemala's congress, controlled by conservative officials, closed on Tuesday a controversial law that contemplated tightening penalties for abortion and prohibited gay marriage, amid claims from human rights organizations and at the request of the president himself.
“The Plenum of the Congress of the Republic of Guatemala accepts the observations to the decree [sent by several deputies], and it is moved to the archive,” the Parliament reported.
The law, adopted last week by a large majority, penalized women who aborted with up to 10 years in prison and amended the Civil Code to expressly prohibit same-sex marriage.
It also restricted school education on sexual diversity. The proposal, now archived, considered that “minority groups” proposed “models of behavior and coexistence different from that of the natural order of marriage and family” and threatened “the moral balance” of society.
This Tuesday, “the president of Congress, Shirley Rivera, did not give the floor to discuss objections” against the rule, “they are ashamed to acknowledge that we were right and that they were wrong (...) Anyway, the good thing is that the decree was shelved,” said legislator Lucrecia Hernández, from the centre-left retail bank Semilla.
Hernandez had previously said that the proposed rule lent itself to the criminalization of miscarriages and discriminated against LGBTI people.
The questioned reform had been approved on March 8, in the prelude to the Ibero-American Congress for Life and the Family, promoted by a conservative religious organization that declared Guatemala the “Pro-Life Capital of Ibero-America” and a “light” against abortion. President Alejandro Giammattei participated in the event.
Despite this, the president asked his allies on 10 March to close the rule, because it violated the Constitution and international conventions.
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) welcomed Giammattei's announcement, as the proposed law ignored “the principles of equality and non-discrimination, essential to international law.”
“This law was made too fascist. It seemed like medieval times,” the activist of the Consortium for Sexual and Reproductive Rights, Alma Chacón, had told AFP at the time.
Without the proposed changes, current law criminalizes abortion in Guatemala with up to 3 years in prison. It is only allowed and not sanctioned when the mother's life is in danger.
In the case of marriage, the current rule ensures that it is the legal union between “a man and a woman”.
burn/blue/dga
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