On 31 July 2025, the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of the Congress of the Dominican Republic, voted 159 to 4 in favour of a new Penal Code. The vote was followed the next day by near-unanimous approval in the Senate. President Luis Abinader signed the law on 3 August, with the code scheduled to come into effect in August 2026.
The measure modernises the penal system, introducing penalties for femicide, cybercrime, and economic violence, but leaves unchanged the nation’s uncompromising stance on abortion. Article 37 of the Constitution declares that “the right to life is inviolable from conception until death.”
