Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Santo Domingo (Agenzia Fides) – The new Constitution of the Dominican Republic guarantees the right to life from the moment of conception until natural death. The press department of the Bishops' Conference of the Dominican Republic has informed Agenzia Fides that "after a long battle with pro-abortion groups and against the international interests lobbying for the government to ensure that the new Constitution approved the right to kill (abortion), life has triumphed." “The Catholic Church - continues the text - had become the opposition and this has been criticized and has been the subject of sarcasm, but in the end God has permitted that our Constitution respect life from conception until natural death.”
Following a debate which lasted about seven months in Parliament (which later became the National Assembly of Revision), and the new Constitution of the Dominican Republic has been approved and it supports and "defends life from conception until natural death." After the official announcement by the President of the Assembly, Reinaldo Pared Perez, the President of the Dominican Republic, Leonel Fernández, said that the new Constitution is "the Constitution of the XXI Century."
The new Constitution that outlaws abortion came into force on January 26, the day of Juan Pablo Duarte (the main "Father of the Nation" of the Dominican Republic) and was approved by the Dominican National Congress. Defense of life has been one of the most controversial issues during the Assembly, which finally approved Article 37 of the Constitution, which states that "the right to life is inviolable from conception to death. The death penalty cannot be established, declared, or applied in any case whatsoever." (CE) (Agenzia Fides 04/02/2010)
