Lawmakers in the Dominican Republic have voted to approve an amendment to their Constitution which would outlaw abortion. President Leonel Fernández initially proposed the measure, which has now passed 167 to 32.

Dominican Today reports:

"Despite the constant objections by feminist organizations, institutions and personalities who favor legalizing abortion in cases of incest, rape or when the pregnancy endangers a woman’s life, the Revisory Assembly Tuesday approved Executive Branch’s proposal 21, which states: “'The right to the life is inviolable from conception until death. The death penalty cannot be established, pronounced, nor applied, in any case'”

In addition to abolishing abortion, this law further reiterates the country's stance on the death penalty, which has been banned since 1924. The maximum penalty for a crime in the Dominican is 30 years in prison.

Last week the Dominican Gynecology and Obstetrics Society warned that the number of maternal deaths with increase considerably wit the approval of the amendment that bans the interruption of pregnancies.