Robin Lipinski

.Spanish bishops: Abortion can never be a right

In the context of the governmentʼs effort to enshrine abortion in the consititution, Spainʼs bishops present the moral and scientific grounds for why abortion can never be a right.

Image from the 2026 Day for Life of the Spanish Bishops’ Conference. | Credit: CEE.

By Nicolás de Cárdenas

March 11, 2026 at 9:00 AM ET

The Spanish Bishops’ Conference (CEE, by its Spanish acronym) have stated that “abortion can never constitute a right, since there is no right to eliminate a human life,” in response to the governmentʼs attempts to include it in the Spanish constitution.

”In anticipation of the Day for Life to be held March 25, the feast of the Annunciation, the Bishops’ Subcommittee for the Family and the Defense of Life released a message titled “Life, an Inviolable Gift” in order to “reaffirm our faith in the God of life, creator of all that is visible and invisible, who confers upon each human being an infinite and inalienable dignity from beginning to end.”

The prelates argued that beyond the truth that proceeds from faith, the defense of human life is also “a requirement of right reason and science,” supported by disciplines such as biology, embryology, and genetics, and techniques such as ultrasound.

They noted that “biology unanimously maintains that, from the moment of fertilization, there exists a living and independent human organism with its own genetic heritage and an autonomous, ordered, and coordinated embryonic development.”

Embryology, for its part, affirms that the zygote “is a real individual of the human species and possesses an ‘ontological self’ from its conception,” the bishops emphasized.

‘Abortion is objectively immoral’

“The embryo is a person distinct from its parents, with a unity organized by its own genetic program. Even thinkers who defend abortion must recognize, for the sake of intellectual honesty, that from the first moments of its existence, the embryo is a human being,” the bishops point out.

That is why, the prelates declare, “abortion is objectively immoral, since it involves ending the life of an individual of our species, denying the radical equality of rights that must underpin any true humanism.”

A grave ‘bio-political paradox’

The bishops also expressed concern about “the tendency to elevate abortion to the status of a ‘right,’ even with constitutional status or in charters of fundamental rights.”

“Abortion can never be a right, since there is no right to eliminate a human life,” the prelates emphasized, adding that “we live in a society suffering from a serious ‘bio-political paradox’” which was pointed out by the president of the CEE, Archbishop Luis Argüello, in his opening address at the bishops’ last plenary assembly.

On that occasion, the archbishop of Valladolid described how, in a hospital, some doctors might be deciding how to save an unborn baby, while another group of healthcare workers “is deliberately killing a baby of the same age in the next room.”

The CEE subcommittee also highlighted the fact that destroying an eagleʼs egg carries a 15,000 euro fine (about $17,480) and up to two years in prison, while the law grants “the right to kill a child with Down syndrome until the end of the pregnancy. [up to birth]”

“This moral inconsistency is a symptom of the weakening of our democracy, which seems incapable of protecting the most vulnerable of all beings: the unborn,” the prelates pointed out.

‘The poorest of the poor’

In accordance with the papal magisterium, the Spanish prelates reminded citizens that “the unborn are the poorest of the poor, for they cannot defend themselves, nor even cry out, against the aggression” against them.

At the same time, the bishops pointed out that the Church’s perspective on abortion does not stop at the unborn child, but also “at mothers and fathers who face difficulties when confronting a pregnancy,” and they decried that many women “see their motherhood thwarted by ‘structural barriers’ that seem absolutely insurmountable: job insecurity, difficulty accessing housing, and the weakness of public policies supporting families.”

The Spanish bishops therefore proposed “a social alliance for hope in favor of natality, which will serve, on the one hand, to build together the necessary conditions so that our young people can consider forming a family open to life and, on the other hand, so that no woman has to resort to abortion because she feels alone or without resources.”

Finally, the prelates expressed their gratitude for “the many initiatives, carried out by non-governmental organizations and individuals, that welcome, support, and provide comprehensive assistance to pregnant women facing difficulties.”

“Abortion is not a victory, but a personal and social failure. We dream of the day when future generations will look back and find it hard to believe that millions of lives were sacrificed in the name of freedom,” they stated.