BOGOTÁ, Colombia (LifeSiteNews) — Colombia’s president and the country’s bishops condemned the February 21 ruling that will allow abortion in the country through the first 24 weeks of pregnancy.
President Iván Duque Márquez, who is pro-life, opposed the court’s ruling.
“We are facing a decision that concerns the entire Colombian society, and five people cannot propose something as atrocious to a nation as allowing a life to be interrupted up to six months of gestation,” the president said, according to Walter Silva, the Latin America correspondent for Catholic News Agency.
“I have always been a pro-life person. I believe, as the Constitutional Court itself also stated a long time ago, that life begins with conception,” he said. “We are talking about interrupting a life that has a very clear developmental process.”
The Catholic bishops also criticized the ruling and called it “an affront to human dignity.”
“Protecting the supposed right to take an innocent human life puts at risk the very foundation of our social order and the rule of law,” the bishops said. “Direct abortion is an immoral act and a violent practice contrary to life.”
“[T]he fact that every pregnancy involves the existence of another human being, distinct from the mother, in conditions of helplessness and vulnerability, who in turn has the right to be part of the human family, cannot be covered over or minimized,” the bishops said.
“The Colombian Constitution says that life is the fundamental right of all citizens and from here proceed the other rights that are defended in Colombia and around the world,” Archbishop Luis José Rueda Aparicio of Bogotá said in a February 21 video.
He said life “is a gift from God, and we will continue to announce, defend and promote human life, from gestation to natural death.”
The former president of Colombia, meanwhile, celebrated the ruling during a recent speech at Harvard University.
“I agree with what the Constitutional Court did in Colombia, expanding the weeks where abortion is allowed,” Juan Manuel Santos said, according to The Crimson. “I think it was a correct move, and I support it.”
“If you ask me, I think they did the right thing,” he said. Santos hinted he wants further legalization of abortion, but said the “conservative country” should not rush into it, but pursue it gradually.
“Eventually, I think all the countries are moving in that direction,” Santos said. “We have to measure the convenience of doing things at the correct pace.”