SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (BP) — Abortion remains legal in Puerto Rico despite a new law there establishing personhood at conception; while among the states, the Wyoming Supreme Court struck down legislation Jan. 6 that outlawed the abortion pill and other limitations.
Puerto Rico’s Gov. Jenniffer González-Colón, a Catholic, signed a new law in late December that recognizes the unborn child from conception as “conceived but not born,” giving the unborn child the same rights as the born, including the mother’s right to claim the child as a tax credit or heir, Our Sunday Visitor News (OSV) reported.
Luis Soto, executive director of the Puerto Rico Baptist Convention in the U.S. territory, applauded the new law.
“We are grateful for legislation that recognizes life at conception and appreciate public leaders who seek to uphold principles that safeguard those who cannot speak for themselves,” Soto told Baptist Press. “Although laws alone cannot transform hearts, they do serve as an important moral framework that reflects society’s responsibility to protect life.”
Among the states, the ruling by the Wyoming Supreme Court struck down two laws passed in 2022 that outlawed the abortion pill and allowed abortion only when needed to protect the mother’s life, and in cases of rape and incest. With the new ruling, Wyoming restricts abortion at fetal viability.
The Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) said the two rulings represent “one step forward and one step back,” and are indicative of pro-life work in the post-Roe v. Wade era.
“In Puerto Rico, we see the government moving in the right direction, recognizing the truth that a person is a person no matter how small. This is, of course, correct, and is a good next step in the fight to end abortion in that commonwealth,” Miles Mullin, ERLC executive vice president and chief of staff, told Baptist Press. “Grievously in Wyoming, we see the opposite. Despite the careful work of lawmakers to craft legislation that outlawed most abortions, including medication abortion, justices in the state’s supreme court found a creative way to rule those laws unconstitutional.”
While all five members of Wyoming’s Supreme Court were appointed by Republican governors, the court’s 4-1 ruling was in line with lower court decisions proclaiming a woman’s constitutional right to abortion. Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon expressed disappointment with the ruling, the Associated Press (AP) reported, and encouraged state lawmakers to take the matter to voters via a constitutional amendment.
Mullin said the issue should be resolved at the federal level.
“These developments demonstrate an undeniable truth: This national existential conflict over whether the most vulnerable among us should be protected and treated as people will not be ultimately resolved by the states. It must be resolved at the federal level,” Mullin told Baptist Press. “Now is not the time to shy away from pro-life protections.
“Now is the time for elected leaders to show courage and fortitude and declare through legislative action that, yes, life begins at conception and should be vigorously protected in federal law — something Southern Baptists have long advocated for.”
In Puerto Rico, Soto said the Baptist convention there continues to uphold life through evangelism and discipleship.
“Our role as a convention is to equip churches and leaders to think and live faithfully according to Scripture and to encourage the formation of laws that promote justice, protect the vulnerable and serve the common good,” Soto told Baptist Press. “As executive director of the Puerto Rico Baptist Convention, I believe the recognition that life begins at conception affirms a foundational moral truth: That every human life possesses inherent dignity and value.
“From a biblical worldview, human life is not accidental or disposable, but created by God and worthy of protection from its earliest stages,” Soto said, citing Psalm 139:13-16.
While abortion remains legal in Puerto Rico, abortion clinics on the island had decreased to four as recently as 2022, the New York Times reported, compared to 43 in 1980. Fewer than 100 gynecologists were in practice on the island of 3.2 million people in 2022, the Times reported.
Wyoming has one abortion clinic, Wellspring Health Access in Casper.
To date, only 13 states restrict abortion from conception, while four states restrict abortion upon the detection of a fetal heartbeat, the AP reported.
(EDITOR’S NOTE — Diana Chandler is Baptist Press’ senior writer.)
