Colombian senator proposes amendment to prohibit abortion

Bogotá, Colombia, Mar 4, 2011 / 12:02 pm

A Colombian senator recently proposed a constitutional amendment that would raise “an absolute and complete barrier” against abortion in the country.

The measure would amend the country’s constitution in order to reverse the legalization of abortion passed by Colombia’s Constitutional Court in 2006.

Senator Jose Dario Salazar, leader of the Colombian Conservative Party, said the amendment would change article 11 of the Colombian Constitution, which reads, “The right to life is inviolable. There shall be no death penalty.”

The phrase “from conception to natural death” would be added to specifically prohibit abortion.

Senator Salazar spoke with CNA March 3, saying he proposed the reform, which will be formally presented at the end of March, because the ruling of the Constitutional Court that legalized abortion “is doing serious damage to society.”

The true role of the government, he said, is “to develop a social role that offers women and their babies a life of dignity from the beginning, in terms of health care, nutrition and work, so that there is no justification for abortion.”

“The government needs to provide security for society so that crimes like rape do not take place.  It needs to provide women educational, sexual and psychological guidance” so that they do not have abortions, he added.

The government has the duty “to provide all of these benefits,” the senator continued. It must not promote the “easy and absurd solution” of aborting a child just because the pregnancy is unwanted or comes at a difficult moment.

Senator Salazar clarified that the amendment would not send women to prison for abortion and noted that the proposal is not of a religious nature. It is rather “a moral and ethical debate on the defense of human life,” as “even atheists defend life,” the senator concluded.