22/05/2026
🇵🇦⚖️ NO MORE RAISING A CHILD THAT ISN'T YOURS: PANAMA APPROVES LAW THAT WILL JAIL MOTHERS WHO LIE ABOUT PATERNITY
🏛️ Panama's National Assembly approved, in its third debate, Bill 510, which turns so-called "paternity fraud" into a crime. The vote was overwhelming: 42 in favor, none against and no abstentions.
📋 The law punishes with two to five years in prison, plus fines, anyone who induces a man, through deliberate deceit or concealment, to recognize as his own a child who is not biologically his, forcing him to take on legal, financial and emotional responsibilities that are not his.
⏳ The sentence can rise by up to half in the most serious cases: when the deception lasts more than five years, when two or more children are affected, or when someone gains a repeated financial benefit.
🧬 The bill also makes DNA testing mandatory in these proceedings and allows the affected man to claim back what he spent from the actual biological father, if that father knew the truth. It also includes a clause protecting the child: a fraud ruling does not affect the minor's access to state protection.
✍️ The text is not final yet. It now goes to President José Raúl Mulino, who must decide whether to sign it or veto it. The bill's sponsor, lawmaker Jairo Salazar, insists the measure is meant to deter and not to attack women or families, while women's groups warn that bringing a family conflict into prison could end up hurting the children themselves.
