President Alejandro Giammattei says he will veto the bill after previously praising the abortion ban

By Nico Lang • March 11, 2022 1:54 pm EDT

Guatemala passed a bill outlawing same-sex marriage this week while tightening its already harsh abortion ban. 

On March 8, Guatemala’s Congress of the Republic overwhelmingly voted in favour of a “Life and Family Protection Law” that would criminalize individuals who “have induced their own abortion or given their consent to another person to carry it out.” Violators could face up to 10 years behind bars under the legislation, according to the Agence France-Presse. And the bill mandates even harsher penalties for inducing an abortion without a pregnant person’s consent: up to 50 years in prison.

Guatemala has long criminalized abortion care. In fact, all abortions were illegal in the country until 1973, when a congressional decree allowed exceptions in cases where the birthing parent’s life is threatened by the pregnancy. In any other case, however, individuals faced up to three years in prison. 

The new omnibus-style bill also takes aim at LGBTQ+ rights in a country where queer and trans people have few federal protections against discrimination. The legislation would update the Guatemala Civil Code to “expressly prohibit same-sex marriages” and prohibits schools from teaching that “anything other than heterosexuality is normal,” per the BBC.