Why Andorra has a bishop for a prince, and what is at stake in its abortion bill

In Andorra, new laws require the signature of a Catholic bishop. Now the government wants him to sign one he is not expected to: a bill ending criminal penalties for abortions.

Ministers approved the bill on Oct. 28 and sent it to the Consell General, Andorraʼs parliament, under an urgent procedure. No vote has been scheduled.

Mitre and Marianne

Andorra, home to about 90,000 people, has two heads of state, called co-princes: the bishop of Urgell, whose see sits just across the Spanish border, and the president of France. Apart from Vatican City, it is the only country where a Catholic bishop serves as head of state.

Almost 750 years ago, in 1278, the bishop and the Count of Foix settled a feudal fight over the valleys high up in the Pyrenees. The countʼs rights passed to French kings, then to French presidents.

The centuries have not changed this arrangement. The 1993 constitution kept both co-princes, “jointly and indivisibly,” as head of state. Article 8 “recognizes the right to life and fully protects it in its different phases.”

Bishop Josep-Lluís Serrano Pentinat succeeded Archbishop Joan-Enric Vives on May 31, 2025.

The prelate, only 48 years old at the time, took the oath as co-prince on June 26, 2025, EWTN News Español, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News, reported.

Andorra bans abortion outright. The new bill rewrites Article 117 of the penal code so that a woman “who consents to or requests her own abortion, or collaborates in carrying it out” cannot be punished, while leaving penalties for doctors and anyone who performs an abortion in place.

Doctors and anyone who performs an abortion would still face up to three years in prison and a five-year ban from health work.

Today a woman could legally be punished with arrest, though lawmakers say no one has in fact been jailed. Media report that women who have an abortion travel to nearby Catalonia, Spain.

A signature sidestepped

No law takes effect without the co-princes of Andorra, who sanction and enact laws within eight to 15 days under Article 45.

But the bishop cannot block a law alone.

If “circumstances” stop one co-prince from signing in time, the law takes effect with the otherʼs signature and a countersignature from the head of government or speaker, limiting the risk of a total veto.

This has happened before. In 2019, Vives did not sanction laws on assisted reproduction and childrenʼs rights, El Periòdic reported. Both took effect.

Andorran media say they expect a repeat. The news site La Veu Lliure reported Oct. 7 that the government and the Holy See had agreed on the billʼs terms and that the bishop would not sign.

Discreet dialogue with Rome

Head of government Xavier Espot and Ladislau Baró, the minister in charge of the bill, met Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin on Oct. 22, 2025, and again on July 29. Baró has said there was no “negotiation” with the Holy See, only “dialogue,” CNA Deutsch, the German-language sister service of EWTN News, reported.

Parolin set out the Holy Seeʼs position in Andorra in September 2023. “For the Holy See, the principle of defending life at all its stages is fundamental,” he said. Changing the penal code also raised “the problem of the constitutional system,” he added. “Itʼs not easy to reconcile these two aspects.”

On Nov. 3 Baró told reporters: “We have no validation, either from Rome or from La Seu, nor do we expect it, because the agreed scenario is already this one,” RTVA reported.

The abdication question

In 2018, the Diari dʼAndorra reported that Pope Francis warned then-head of government Antoni Martí that decriminalizing abortion would force the bishop to abdicate. A year later, Politico reported that Vives had made clear he would resign if Macron approved an abortion law in his place.

The narrow bill is built to avoid that crisis, observers say. “There is always a way out, which would be not signing the law,” the retired Vives told Spanish broadcaster COPE in January, Diari dʼAndorra reported.

Serrano Pentinat has said little. “It is not for me to make decisions or speak about it,” he said in November 2025 at a hospital chapel.

“Our whole existence is a yes to life,” he said according to El Periòdic.

Macron, visiting in April, said: “I hope with affection that this debate progresses.”

Votes, voices, and a Christmas address

The government wants the law passed before elections in spring 2027, with an absolute majority of the 28-member Consell General.

The Catholic womenʼs group Stella Mons wants protection for the unborn child and real support for mothers. “The protection of life and the protection of women are not incompatible objectives,” it said in August.

The bishopʼs next likely chance to speak is his Christmas address at the episcopal palace.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church is clear on the question: “The inalienable right to life of every innocent human individual is a constitutive element of a civil society and its legislation” (No. 2273).

Source: https://www.ewtnnews.com/world/europe/why-andorra-has-a-bishop-for-a-prince-and-what-is-at-stake-in-its-abortion-bill