Catholic declaration says unborn child deserves full constitutional protection

NEW DELHI (Indian Catholic News) — Indian Catholic bishops said they were compelled to explain to the nation why “To authorise, facilitate, or perform the killing of such a child is, in the considered moral judgement of the Church, an act of homicide,” as they sharply criticised a proposed termination of a 30-week pregnancy involving a minor.

The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) in a four-page declaration issued by Fr. Mathew Koyickal, deputy secretary general of the CBCI, said they had followed “with profound anguish and grave moral concern” reports that the Supreme Court of India had directed the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi to consider terminating the pregnancy.

The document, titled The Church Stands for Life: A Solemn Declaration on the Inviolable Sanctity of Unborn Human Life, responded to proceedings linked to “the Termination of a Thirty-Week Pregnancy of a Minor on April 30, 2026.”

The Supreme Court upheld a minor’s autonomy directing the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, to carry out the procedure despite contrary medical advice over health risks to both the girl and the foetus.

The bishops acknowledged “the deeply distressing circumstances confronting the minor parents in this case” and said the Church held “in the highest regard the dignity and well-being of every vulnerable person, including minors who find themselves in crisis.”

They reiterated their “unwavering commitment to pastoral accompaniment, material support, and charitable assistance for all such persons, in accordance with the Church’s perennial tradition of mercy.”

But the statement insisted that “the legal minority of the biological parents cannot, under any framework of moral reasoning — whether derived from natural law, positive divine law, canonical law, or constitutional principle — constitute a valid justification for the deliberate termination of the life of a child at thirty weeks of gestation.”

The bishops argued that at 30 weeks “the child in the womb possesses fully formed vital organs, a functioning neurological system, the established capacity to perceive pain, developed respiratory musculature, and all the essential anthropological attributes of a human person deserving of the law’s full protection.”

Appeal to constitutional protections

The bishops said the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act “must never be construed or applied as a legislative licence for the destruction of fully viable human life at thirty weeks of gestation.”

They added that the judiciary, “in the exercise of its noble function of upholding constitutional values, is solemnly bound by Article 21 of the Constitution of India to extend the protection of the right to life and dignity to the unborn child who is indisputably, at thirty weeks, a living human being endowed with the full capacity for extra-uterine viability.”

The declaration framed its argument not only in Catholic teaching but also in India’s wider religious and philosophical traditions.

“India is a civilisation, not merely a State,” the bishops wrote. “The moral wisdom enshrined in her ancient scriptural and philosophical traditions speaks with unambiguous authority on the sanctity of life in the womb.”

The document grounded its defence of unborn life not only in Catholic teaching but also in India’s ancient religious, philosophical and legal traditions, citing the Manusmriti, Atharva Veda, Garuda Purana, Vishnu Purana, Charaka Samhita, Mahabharata and Arthashastra of Kautilya in support of the protection of unborn life.

The protection of unborn children “is not the monopoly of any single religious tradition, but is the common inheritance of the entire Indian people,” it said.

Referring to Hindu traditions, scriptures, classical philosophy and ancient medical ethics, the bishops wrote that “to destroy a life in the womb is, in Hindu Dharmic understanding, a transgression of the first magnitude, equal in its heinousness to the murder of the most exalted member of society.”

The declaration referred to the Manusmriti, which it said “enumerates Bhrunahatya — the deliberate killing of the foetus or embryo — among the Mahapatakas, the most grievous category of moral transgressions in the Dharmik tradition.” It added that the text equates the destruction of unborn life with “the gravest of sins against a human person.”

The bishops also cited the Atharva Veda, saying it uses the term “Bhruna-ghni — one who destroys the embryo — as a designation of singular moral opprobrium.” The Garuda Purana and Vishnu Purana were quoted as teaching that “the jiva — the immortal individual soul — dwells within and animates the body from its formation in the garbha (womb).”

Referring to the Charaka Samhita, the declaration said the ancient Ayurvedic text “explicitly teaches that the garbha is a living, conscious being from the moment of its formation and declares its protection to be a primary and non-negotiable obligation of the physician and of society.” It added that the Mahabharata and Arthashastra of Kautilya prescribe severe consequences for the destruction of unborn life.

Calls to court, government and doctors

The CBCI appealed directly to the Supreme Court “to uphold the inviolable right to life of the unborn child at thirty weeks, and to decline authorisation for the termination of this pregnancy.”

“The legal minority of the parents is a circumstance that demands pastoral remedy, social support, and the application of child protection law — not the violent elimination of an innocent third party,” the statement said.

The bishops also urged the Government of India and lawmakers “to urgently and comprehensively review the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1971 with a view to establishing unambiguous and enforceable legal protection for viable unborn children.”

“The State’s first duty is the protection of human life,” they said. “The law must never become an instrument of violence against the most defenceless members of the human family.”

Addressing the medical community, the bishops appealed to “the foundational imperative of all medical ethics, both ancient and modern — primum non nocere, first, do no harm.”

“The physician’s sacred vocation is to heal and to preserve life, not to destroy it,” the declaration said.

The statement specifically called upon AIIMS and “the entire medical fraternity of India to refuse any cooperation in procedures that constitute the deliberate killing of a viable human being.”

Church pledges support to minors

The bishops also appealed to “All Persons of Goodwill and All Citizens of India” to “raise their voices in defence of the unborn, regardless of religious affiliation, caste, or community.”

“The silence of the just in the face of injustice is itself a form of complicity,” the statement said. “Let every conscience be awakened to its duty.”

The declaration stressed that the Church would provide support for the minors involved in the case.

“The CBCI pledges the full social, institutional, and material resources of the Catholic Church in India — to the care of the minor parents in this case, and to all those in similar distress throughout our nation,” it said.

“Our position on the sanctity of life is not one of indifference to human suffering,” the bishops added. “The suffering of one person — however real and however deeply we mourn it — cannot be remedied by the deliberate destruction of another.”

Read the full declaration.