TWO CATHOLIC clinics have challenged a ruling by the Colombian Constitutional Court that all medical institutions are obliged to carry out pregnancy terminations when asked to do so in circumstances deemed legal by the Court: when the pregnancy is the result of a rape or incest, when the mother's life is in danger, or when the foetus suffers from a serious malformation.

The Court, which issued its ruling in May, accepts that individual doctors may excuse themselves from carrying out such procedures on grounds of religious belief, but lays down that hospitals and clinics are not allowed to claim conscientious objection to abortion. Individual doctors must state their objections to the national medical ethics tribunal, which may accept or reject them.

That has not deterred the Clínica de la Presentación in Manizales and the clinic attached to Medellín's Catholic University from stating that they will never carry out abortions in any circumstances. The director of the Manizales clinic, Dr Jorge Rubio, said that, if a woman meeting the conditions established by the Court requested an abortion, she would be referred to another hospital.

Other Catholic institutions, including the Palermo clinic in Bogotá, may now follow suit. Cardinal Pedro Rubiano, Archbishop of Bogotá, recently reminded all doctors and mothers who took part in an abortion that they were ipso facto excommunicated.