Guatemala president attends Pro-Life ceremony as people protest against new law

Guatemala's conservative-led Congress approved a law ramping up the prison sentence for women who choose to have an abortion, while banning both gay marriage and teaching on sexual diversity.

The so-called Life and Family Protection Law punishes women who "have induced their own abortion or given their consent to another person to carry it out" with 10 years behind bars -- more than three times the current sentence of three years.

The bill, set to come into law once President Alejandro Giammattei signs it, was passed by Congress on International Women's Day.

It also punishes anyone who induces an abortion without a woman's consent with up to 50 years in prison.

Abortion is only authorized in Guatemala when there is a threat to the mother's life.

"While other countries continue to approve pro-abortion laws as well as laws that lead to the deterioration of the original concept of the family, this initiative has now become an important law for Guatemalan society," said right-wing Congressman Armando Castillo, a key defender of the law.

But others were more critical.

"Losing a pregnancy is devastating, and this law automatically turns a woman into a suspect even as she mourns her loss. They are criminalizing and penalizing miscarriages and that is dangerous," center-left congresswoman Lucrecia Hernandez said.

The bill introduces a reform to the Civil Code, which will now "expressly prohibit same-sex marriages" in Guatemala.

It would also ban public and private teaching initiatives on sexual diversity, which it describes as "promoting in children and teenagers policies or programs that tend to lead to diversion from their sexual identities at birth."

Those who promoted the law have said that there are "minority groups of Guatemalan society" that propose "models of conduct... different from the natural order of marriage and family, which represent a threat to the moral balance of our society."

Left-wing Congressman Walter Felix denounced the law as "absolutely discriminatory", and said it "incites hate."

"The human rights of significant parts of the population are being violated," Felix said.