TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras – Members of the Honduran Congress on Thursday voted to amend the constitution, making it much more difficult to lift existing bans on same-sex abortion and marriages as lawmakers double social-conservative priorities.
Legislators voted to require a three-quarters super-majority to amend a constitutional article giving a fetus the same legal status as a person, and another declaring that civil marriages in the Central American nation are only between men and women can be.
With 88 legislatures in favor, 28 against and seven abstentions, the proposal will need another second vote in the unicameral legislature next year before being passed.
Currently, all constitutional amendments require a two-thirds majority vote of the body with 128 members.
Mario Perez, a lawmaker at the ruling party of President Juan Orlando Hernandez, explained during a virtual floor debate that the change would create a “constitutional lock” for the possible mitigation of existing articles.
The country’s criminal law provides for three to six years’ imprisonment for women who abort a fetus, as well as any other person involved.
Proponents of abortion rights have accused supporters of proposing to ratify the current ban.
“This legislation condemns pregnant women or pregnant girls who have been raped or killed for health reasons,” said Merary Mendoza, a researcher at the Honduran Women’s Studies Center CEMH.
Kevihn Ramos, the head of a gay rights advocacy group in Honduras, blasted lawmakers who voted to make it more difficult to change the two constitutional articles.
“This reform is the product of a state-imposed religion in Honduras,” he said.
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