Prominent lawyers from Colombia’s inspector general’s office quit after being ordered to change their comments on abortion, reported local media Friday.
Inspector General lawyers Ilva Myriam Hoyos and Maria Eugenia Carreño offered their resignations Thursday evening after the Constitutional Court ruled Wednesday that their office rectify a statement in which they referred to sexual education campaigns as, “Mass campaigns to promote abortion as a right.”
Additionally, the court demanded the Inspector General’s Office change their official stance that the use of the morning-after pill constitutes abortion, which in Colombia is only allowed in cases that involve rape, danger to the mother’s life or if the child will be born with severe defects.
Hoyos and Carreño were also asked to publicly alter statements made between November 2009 and March 2011, in which they criticized the court’s judgments on the decriminalization of abortion in those three cases.
Hoyos instead chose to resign, claiming the office of the Inspector General must remain independent. She also reaffirmed that she has ignored the rulings of the Constitutional Court previously and has always acted in the interests of women, childhood and in defense of life.
Speaking with leading Colombian newspaper El Tiempo, Carreño also disputed the approach of the Constitutional Court, “If we are talking in terms of justice, the Court’s reproach of me is not fair. My purpose was to take preventive action based on legal and scientific concepts.”
Maria Carreño works in administrative oversight, while Hoyos is the delegate attorney for family, childhood and adolescence. Hoyos has previously been nominated for a position on the Constitutional Court yet was not chosen.
At this stage, it is unknown whether chief prosecutor Alejandro Ordoñez will accept the letters of resignation.