“The Magisterium of the Church teaches us that abortion in any situation represents a grave violation of the sacred right to life we all have,” said Bishop Elkin Fernando Álvarez Botero, secretary general of the Colombian bishops’ conference, in a Jan. 29 statement.

“That’s what the Church teaches, and even if the laws propose other situations, the message of the Church remains unchanged,” he stressed.

He emphasized that the right to life is also “the basis for all rights” and called on the nation’s authorities to take the right to life into account when decisions are made.

The bishop’s comments come as the Constitutional Court of Colombia reviews two lawsuits seeking to protect the rights of unborn children and prohibit abortion by healthcare providers in the country.

The lawsuits were filed last year by doctor of constitutional law Natalia Bernal Cano. They seek to recognize the unborn as having human rights and to completely ban abortion on the grounds that it “does serious harm to the babies and the pregnant mothers” involved.

Columbia’s Constitutional Court legalized abortion in 2006 in cases of rape, fetal deformities and when a doctor determines there is a risk to the life or health of the mother. In a 2018 ruling, the court affirmed its 2006 decision, declared abortion to be a “human right,” and asked the government to issue further regulations defining the legal circumstances for abortions to be performed. The Ministry of Health is currently working on developing those regulations.

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