The rule, approved last week by a large majority, penalized women who abort with up to 10 years in prison and modified the Civil Code to expressly prohibit same-sex marriage.
It also restricted school teaching on sexual diversity. The proposal, now filed, considered that “minority groups” proposed “models of behavior and coexistence other than 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 the objections” against the norm, “they are ashamed to admit that we were right and that they were wrong (…) In short, the good thing is that the decree was shelved,” said legislator Lucrecia Hernández, of the center-left retail caucus Semilla.
Hernández 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 Family, promoted by a conservative religious organization that declared Guatemala the “Pro-Life Capital of Ibero-America” and “light” against abortion. President Alejandro Giammattei participated in the act.