Puerto Rico’s governor on Thursday signed a law to recognize a fetus as a human being for the purposes of homicide law.

The signed law was approved by the Senate of Puerto Rico as Senate Bill 923. It amends the definition of murder under the territory’s Penal Code. The definition now treats the killing of a pregnant woman, resulting in the death of the conceived child at any stage of gestation, as first-degree murder. This means that if a violent act is perpetrated against a pregnant woman and results in the loss of her pregnancy, the unborn child is recognized as a separate victim. Previously, the law did not cover such cases, and therefore the new definition is meant to remove those legal gaps.

Puerto Rico’s Republican governor, Jenniffer González, said the measure “aims to maintain consistency between civil and criminal provisions by recognizing the unborn child as a human being.” These recent civil statutes have recognized the fetus as a human being and natural person. Government officials have also suggested this complements earlier reforms adopted after the killing of Keishla Rodríguez, a pregnant woman, on April 29, 2021.

The Penal Code carries the territory’s harshest penalties, and this amendment was passed without public hearings. This was a point criticized by Annette Martínez Orabona, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Puerto Rico. She said, “[t]here is no doubt that the measure did not undergo adequate analysis before its approval and leaves an unacceptable space for ambiguity regarding civil rights.” She further adds that “[t]he legislative leadership failed to fulfill its responsibility to the people, and so did the governor.”

The new law was also criticized by the medical community. Dr. Carlos Díaz Vélez, president of Puerto Rico’s College of Medical Surgeons, warned that the law would encourage “defensive health care.” This means physicians will act primarily to avoid criminal liability rather than to provide optimal medical treatment. Private doctors may turn away from women with high-risk or complicated pregnancies, pushing them towards the territory’s public hospitals or forcing them to seek care on the US mainland.

In the US, some states have similar provisions but are often paired with strict abortion limits. For example, the Texas Penal Code recognizes an “unborn child” as a victim in criminal cases. At the same time, the state enforces a near-total ban on abortion, making it illegal for most providers to perform the procedure except in rare life-threatening cases. This and similar measures in other states have followed political shifts and court rulings, particularly after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade’s near-five-decade federal constitutional protection of abortion.

In Puerto Rico, however, this signed law recognizes the unborn in criminal law without explicitly banning abortion. It is therefore regarded as the first US territory to adopt such explicit recognition of the unborn in its Penal Code. Unlike similar laws elsewhere, abortion remains legal in Puerto Rico subject to some conditions and requirements.