Read Part 1.

If someone asks Juan Gaud about his childhood, he will first say that he is the son of a pastor and that he heard the gospel from his mother’s womb. Then, “I accompanied my father to pastoral retreats and listened until dawn to biblical discussions from different points of view,” he recounts.

He formally preached for the first time in the Guayanilla, Puerto Rico, public square at the age of 12, at a children’s gathering. From that age, he was not only part of the United Evangelical Church of Puerto Rico in Sabana Luquillo but also participated in its annual assemblies for about three decades.

During that period, he became a youth leader and, after graduating as a lawyer, served as a parliamentary advisor in various secular and ecclesiastical organizations. He developed the art of theological debate, and he remembered his father’s advice: “Observe where the Spirit of God is moving and follow it.”

Gaud held leadership positions in church councils, participated in Christian education committees, and served as legal counsel for the church. He never imagined that the skills he learned there would make him one of the leading political voices in Puerto Rico in defense of religious freedom, the family, and a staunch opponent of gender ideology and woke culture.

Since August 2025, he has served as director of the Office of Faith-Based Churches of the Governor of Puerto Rico, and he has experienced the battles for the passage of laws for religious freedom and the right to life, which could inspire the Americas.

Here is the second part of my interview with Juan.

Have you encountered obstacles to your work inside or outside the Governor’s Office?

The usual ones from leftist and socialist sectors.

Within the New Progressive Party (PNP, in Spanish, the party in power), there were the normal power struggles, especially from the faction that was defeated in the primary elections. On the other hand, there were members of different parties who — through political alliances — are now interacting with faith-based groups despite having attacked and minimized them during the election campaign.

What projects is the Office focused on today?

Implementing approved legislation, establishing the structure, and educating about the meaning of religious freedom.

Amnesty International (AI), in its 2024 report on Puerto Rico, stated: “Abortion clinics were subjected to excessive government regulation and investigations. The Senate approved restricting minors’ access to abortion.” What were they referring to?

This is an issue that doesn’t only concern the faith-based citizen sector.

I participated in these regulations and rules, and I continue to participate within the limits imposed by my position in government and in accordance with my pro-life principles.

The task was difficult. Some groups, even within the Christian community, distorted the rule of law in Puerto Rico by attempting to legally and completely classify abortion as “murder,” omitting the fact that it is only a crime if it is not for reasons of health or life, or the life of the mother. Distorting the rule of law to prevail would be doing what is done to Christians and conservatives; if we behaved this way, morally there would be no difference between us and the Left.

That issue has already been resolved, but it set back the struggle and gave ammunition to those who opposed the law. They accused Christians of treating women who have abortions as murderers.

Currently, the debate within the pro-life sector is different: between those of us who believe that there are exceptions that must be expressly codified and that informed consent must be properly legislated, and those who are completely opposed to abortion. We support legislation for the nasciturus, and the concept of double homicide.

The current Puerto Rican administration will protect the rights of the unborn and guarantee an increased birth rate through public policy initiatives such as tax reform and the federal policy on Trump accounts, among others.

AI also pointed out that “LGBTI people continued to suffer discrimination” due to legislative measures such as House Bill 1821, passed in January 2024, “which penalized artistic and family or children’s entertainment activities performed by drag queens.” Is that true?

What they claim is one thing, and reality is another. That is a purely media-driven argument.

The State has the responsibility to protect minors and respect the rights of parents over their children. In fact, recent cases from the United States Supreme Court clearly uphold these rights, especially if they are based on religious grounds.

On the contrary, the sexualization of minors is not protected. In fact, as I have argued, it is one of the main tools of pedophiles, especially when they incite minors to experiment with their sexuality in secret from their parents or legal guardians. This conduct is considered child abuse under Law 57 in Puerto Rico.

At the end of December 2025, the governor affirmed Senate Bill 504, which amends the Puerto Rico Civil Code to recognize the fetus as a natural person from conception. This was, according to CBN News, “one of the strongest pro-life affirmations in a U.S. jurisdiction.”

This law ratified the legal status established in 2020 in the New Civil Code, given that the Bar Association and some law schools indicated that this was a matter of interpretation.

In Puerto Rico, life is protected from conception.

You mentioned in a recent interview that the Law was not “politicized.” What did you mean by that?

The Left and the main media outlets in Puerto Rico are liberal. Both used their full arsenal to confuse public opinion.

The newspaper República has considered this legislative movement in Puerto Rico to be part of a national conversation about the legal status of the unborn. Groups throughout the Americas look to Puerto Rico today as an example in the fight for the right to life. Do you think there is a “contagion effect” in that sense?

Yes, I do. Since 2012, Puerto Rico has fought for a religious freedom law, which we finally achieved in 2025. The same thing happened with the pro-life laws. Many of the lawyers in Puerto Rico who work on both issues maintain alliances with similar groups in the continental United States.

However, it has been the statehood lawyers, that is, those legal professionals affiliated with the PNP who promote “statehood” (that the island become a state), who have been the driving force behind this movement.