Spanish bishops respond to PM Sánchez: Abortion can never be a right

In a potent stance against the Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and his government's efforts to constitutionalize abortion, the Spanish Bishops’ Conference (CEE) has asserted that “abortion can never constitute a right, since there is no right to eliminate a human life.”

Key Takeaways:

• The Spanish Bishops' Conference has published a message against the government's efforts to make abortion a constitutional right.

• The bishops' message, "Life, an Inviolable Gift," said, "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."

• They also noted that "the God of Life" ... "confers upon each human being an infinite and inalienable dignity from beginning to end."

The Details:

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 published a message titled “Life, an Inviolable Gift” 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,” according to Catholic World Report.

The message is aimed at preventing abortion from becoming a constitutional right in Spain. Apart from the truth disclosed by faith, reason and science also mandate the defense of human life. Fields like biology, embryology, and genetics, as well as technological tools such as ultrasound, reinforce the pro-life view.

“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,” the CEE said. 

It noted, “Women must be genuinely helped to welcome motherhood and should never feel compelled to abort due to social or economic pressure."

The Pro-Life Reply to: "Abortion is a Constitutional Right"

The prelates reaffirmed that matters pertaining to the inherent dignity of every person, the basic right to live, and the safeguarding of society’s most vulnerable cannot be ignored.

Hence, the bishops highlighted that an embryo is “a person distinct from its parents, with a unity organized by its own genetic program." Thus, abortion is “objectively immoral” by terminating human lives, “since it involves ending the life of an individual of our species, denying the radical equality of rights that must underpin any true humanism."

Articulating perennial papal teaching, the bishops alluded to preborn children as “the poorest of the poor,” for they are helpless against aggression they cannot even resist. Reflecting the Catholic Church’s views that being pro-life does not only mean focusing on the welfare of preborn children, the bishops acknowledged that although many mothers face "structural barriers" that threaten motherhood, such as economic uncertainties and a lack of sociocultural support, abortion provides no solutions but instead further harms them. Genuine pro-life support implies boosting families, not eradicating the vulnerable. 

“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 expressed. 

Zoom Out:

The bishops’ call is a somber reminder for pro-life supporters in Spain and beyond to oppose a regularization of what Pope John Paul II denounced as a “culture of death," particularly as Spain's Socialist government under Sánchez tries to broaden various anti-life laws on abortion, euthanasia, and gender ideology. In 2025, the “Yes to Life" rally in Madrid attracted over 500 pro-life groups to bear witness to the sanctity of all human lives. 

In a statement, the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Union proclaimed that abortion “is gravely contrary to the moral law” and maintained that women “should never feel compelled to abort due to social or economic pressure.” They also recounted the “constant teaching of the Catholic Church” about abortion, pointing out that scientific development “increasingly confirms that from fertilization a new human being comes into existence, endowed with inherent dignity and deserving of the fundamental protection owed to every human life," according to EWTN News.