After Roe Fell: U.S. Abortion Laws by State

Not Protected

Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico may move to prohibit or severely restrict abortion. Currently, Puerto Rico law prohibits abortion except when “therapeutic” or to protect health or life.

State Legal Details

Bans in Effect

  • Gestational Ban, Viability

Governance

The United States Supreme Court has held that inhabitants of Puerto Rico enjoy due process and equal protection rights.1 Abortion has been legislated in Puerto Rico since at least 1879, and it was prohibited without exception until 1937, when a health or life exception was added.2  This change in 1937 was part of a broader eugenic, colonial, and capitalist biomedical agenda imposed on the island, which manifested itself most devastatingly in the form of forced sterilizations and experiments with birth control.3 Perversely, these unconscionable efforts at reproductive coercion, “as injurious and abusive as they were” led to the creation of “an infrastructure of health facilities, services, and train human resources, which indirectly benefited issues related to reproductive health.”4 As a result, prior to Roe, pregnant people of means traveled from the mainland to San Juan, Puerto Rico, to obtain safe abortions even though they were technically illegal on the island.4

Restrictions

Puerto Rico generally prohibits abortion except when “therapeutic”, to “preserve the health or life” of the pregnant person.6 Puerto Rico law restricts the provision of abortion care to licensed physicians.7 Individuals who violate Puerto Rico’s abortion restrictions may face criminal penalties.8 The territory requires providers to submit reports to the state.9

Protections

The Constitution of Puerto Rico contains an explicit right to privacy,10 but the Puerto Rico Supreme Court has not addressed whether it encompasses the right to abortion.

Post-Roe Prohibitions

Puerto Rico repealed its pre-Roe ban in 2011.11

Conclusion

Now that the Supreme Court has overturned Roe, it is possible that Puerto Rico would enact an outright ban on abortion or severe abortion restrictions.12 If so, there is a very real possibility that the ability to obtain an abortion—already out of reach for so many residents of the island—would cease.

  1. Examining Bd. of Engineers, Architects & Surveyors v. Flores de Otero, 426 U.S. 572, 600 (1976). ↩︎
  2. Pueblo v. Duarte Mendoza, 109 D.P.R. 596, 598, n.2 (1980).u00a0 The Puerto Rico Supreme Court in Duarte Mendoza also discussed the historical context of abortion in Puerto Rico, and the fact that laws that criminalized abortionu2014as well as other sections of the penal codeu2014were not representative of the countryu2019s historical tradition.u00a0 The Court also provided a then-current review of international approaches to abortion regulation. ↩︎
  3. Yamila Azize-Vargas and Luis A. Avilu00e9s, Abortion in Puerto Rico: The Limits of a Colonial Legality, 17 P.R. Health Sci. J. 27, 28 (1998), https://www.law.berkeley.edu/php-programs/centers/crrj/zotero/loadfile.php?entity_key=4EDXBC2J. ↩︎
  4. Id. ↩︎
  5. Id. ↩︎
  6. 33 L.P.R.A. u00a7u00a7 5147-5149. For the post-Roe and pre-Dobbs analysis of abortion, see Pueblo v. Duarte Mendoza, 109 D.P.R. 596 (1980). ↩︎
  7. 33 L.P.R.A. u00a7 5147. ↩︎
  8. See, e.g., 33 L.P.R.A. u00a7u00a7 5147-5148. ↩︎
  9. 24 L.P.R.A. u00a7 232; Puerto Rico Department of Health, Reglamento de Centros de Terminaciu00f3n de Embarazo, No. 7654 R. (Dec. 29, 2008), http://app.estado.gobierno.pr/ReglamentosOnLine/Reglamentos/7654.pdf. ↩︎
  10. P.R. Const. art. II, u00a78; Figueroa Ferrer v. Commonwealth, 107 D.P.R. 250 (1978). ↩︎
  11. 33 L.P.R.A. u00a7u00a7 1051-54, repealed by Law of July 12, 2011, No. 125, art. 1, ef. July 12, 2011. ↩︎
  12. See, e.g., H.B. 1407, 19th Leg. Assemb., 3d Sess. (June 25, 2022); H.B. 1084, 19th Leg. Assem., 2nd Sess. (Nov. 8, 2021). ↩︎