Catholic News Agency reports that Puerto Rican Governor Jenniffer González signed Law 183-2025 recognizing unborn children as “natural persons” at any gestational stage, alongside Law 166-2025 classifying fetal deaths during violent crimes against pregnant women as first-degree murder. The article credits Senator Joanne Rodríguez and Senate President Thomas Rivera for these measures, depicting them as “historic achievements” ending “more than four decades” of failed pro-life legislation. Additional laws discussed include parental consent requirements for minors seeking abortion (Law 122-2025) and a ban on gender transition procedures for those under 21 (Law 63-2025). Rodríguez declares these laws restore “the moral foundation” of Puerto Rico’s 1952 constitution, while Rivera invokes Familiaris Consortio by “St.” John Paul II, claiming the legislation reflects “Christian principles.”
Theological Nullity of Secular “Personhood” Constructs
The central fraud of Law 183 lies in its reduction of imago Dei (Gen 1:27) to mere legal positivism. By defining the unborn as “natural persons” under civil law while maintaining abortion exceptions, Puerto Rico’s legislators engage in the modernist heresy condemned by Pius IX: “Human reason, without any reference whatsoever to God, is the sole arbiter of truth and falsehood” (Syllabus of Errors, 3). True Catholic anthropology, articulated in Pope Pius XI’s Casti Connubii, recognizes that “the child, as a precious gift of God, is not the property of human society or of the parents, but has the right to the immediate protection of the State, independently of any other consideration” (1930). Puerto Rico’s legislation deliberately avoids this ius divinum foundation, instead crafting a utilitarian compromise that preserves abortion access under the guise of “health exceptions” – itself a neo-pagan concept foreign to Apostolic Tradition.
Conciliar Heresy in Rivera’s “Christian Principles”
Senate President Rivera’s appeal to “Christian perspective” while quoting the antipope Wojtyła (
“the future of humanity passes by way of the family”
) exposes the conciliar rot underpinning this legislation. Wojtyła’s Familiaris Consortio emerged from the Vatican II sect’s adulteration of marriage doctrine, implicitly endorsing the heresy of “human dignity” severed from submission to Christ the King. Compare this with Pope Pius XI’s unambiguous teaching: “He who attempts to destroy the divine constitution of the family is an enemy of God and society” (Divini Illius Magistri, 1929). Rivera’s legislation centers on secular human rights rhetoric, never once mentioning the Social Reign of Christ the King – the sole foundation for just laws according to Quas Primas (1925). The silence on Puerto Rico’s duty to recognize Catholicism as the state religion (per Syllabus 77) proves these politicians worship the modern god of pluralism.
Surgical Ban as Biological Materialism
Law 63’s prohibition of gender mutilation for minors appears praiseworthy superficially but remains poisoned by naturalistic presuppositions. Rodríguez frames it as halting “chemical or surgical mutilation treatments as part of a progressive trend,” reducing the offense to medical ethics rather than the ontological crime against human nature. The Catholic position, defined at the Council of Vienne (1312) and reaffirmed by Leo XIII, holds that “the soul is the form of the body” (Fifth Lateran Council, 1513). Thus, “gender transition” constitutes not mere “mutilation” but satanic rebellion against the Creator’s ordo naturalis. By adopting secularist “minors’ protection” language, Puerto Rico’s law implicitly accepts the gnostic premise that adults may licitly deform their bodies – a view condemned by Pius XII’s prohibition of nontherapeutic sterilizations (Address to Midwives, 1951).
Abortion “Exemptions” as Formal Cooperation with Evil
Rodríguez’s assurance that “clinical decisions in emergency scenarios continue to be based exclusively on the risk to the patient’s life or health” constitutes formal cooperation with child murder. The Catholic Medical Association’s 1949 directives state unequivocally: “Never may one directly kill an innocent human being, not even to save another life.” This principle flows from the Fifth Commandment’s absolute prohibition, which admits no exceptions for “hard cases” – a truth reiterated in Pius XII’s 1951 condemnation of direct abortion even to save mothers. Puerto Rico’s laws thus create a two-tiered personhood where the unborn possess rights only until inconvenient – precisely the relativistic calculus denounced in Lamentabili Sane (1907) as “the evolution of dogmas.”
Omission of the Church’s Juridical Supremacy
Nowhere do the legislators acknowledge the Code of Canon Law (1917) or the Church’s exclusive right to govern marriage and family life (Canon 1016). Their appeals to Puerto Rico’s 1952 constitution exemplify the Americanist heresy condemned by Leo XIII: “The State must leave the same freedom to the members of Orders and Congregations” (Testem Benevolentiae, 1899). True Catholic governance requires submission to Quas Primas‘ mandate that “rulers of states…fulfill this duty themselves and with their people” by establishing Catholicism as the state religion. Rivera’s pride in “reaffirmation of the principles and values that distinguish us as a society” rings demonic when divorced from the only legitimate source of law: the Social Kingship of Christ.
Source:
Puerto Rico enacts law recognizing legal personhood of the unborn child (catholicnewsagency.com)
Date: 04.01.2026