Honduran lawmakers vote to lock in bans on abortion, same-sex marriage

 | 
12/25/2021

TEGUCIGALPA, Jan 21 (Reuters) – Members of the Honduran Congress voted on Thursday to amend the constitution making it much harder to reverse existing hard-line bans on abortion and same-sex marriage, as lawmakers double down on socially conservative priorities. Lawmakers voted to require a three-quarters super-majority to change a constitutional article that gives a fetus the same legal status of a person, and another that states that civil marriage in the Central American nation can only be between a man and a woman. With 88 legislators in favor, 28 opposed and seven abstentions, the proposal will still need a second vote in the unicameral legislature next year before it is enacted. Currently, all constitutional changes require a two-thirds majority vote of the 128-member body. Mario Perez, a lawmaker with the ruling party of President Juan Orlando Hernandez, explained during a virtual floor debate that the change will create a “constitutional lock” on any would-be softening of the existing articles. The country’s criminal code sets out three to six-year prison terms for women who abort a fetus as well as anyone else involved.

Share this:

Latest Global News

Added on: 07/26/2024
07/25/2024
Ghana’s Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld a six-decade-old law criminalizing gay sex as the west African country awaits another court decision on whether to …
Added on: 07/26/2024
07/25/2024
The Government of Namibia has chosen the wrong side of history by challenging the recent High Court ruling that declared the country’s apartheid-era ban …
Added on: 07/26/2024
07/25/2024
It’s hard to believe it was little over a year ago. Just 12 months ago, the best women’s soccer teams from across the globe …

Explore LGBTQ+ Issues

Added on: 07/24/2024
In June, the LGBT+ association Kap Caraïbe in the French Caribbean island of Martinique had to cancel many of the events it planned as …
Added on: 07/20/2024
The global push to recognize the rights of LGBTQ couples continued in separate parts of the world this month when the Dutch Supreme Court …
Added on: 07/06/2024
Hand in hand, Andrea and Fiorella attend an improvised mass in the garage of a house in San Salvador. There they say they don’t …