Serrano serves as joint head of state of the country ex officio as bishop of the Spanish diocese of Urgell.
The bill, expected to pass in November, would amend the country’s criminal code to remove criminal penalties for women who undergo abortions, and remove professional sanctions for doctors or medical personnel who perform them.
The law would not, however, formally permit abortions to take place in the small nation between Spain and France.
By law only one of the country’s two co-princes must sign legislation for it to become law, a step usually left to the French president — the other Andorran co-prince — on contentious matters. But the Vatican’s hand in the current negotiations has prompted questions over whether Bishop Serrano might also sign.
The decriminalization of abortion in the tiny state has been a subject of discussion and negotiation for months, both domestically and diplomatically, with Andorran Prime Minister Xavier Espot saying in an interview in March that the law had been “discreetly” negotiated with the Vatican.
La Vanguardia reported in 2024 that Andorran officials were negotiating with the Vatican on a change to Andorran policy on abortion, and claimed that the Holy See had quietly approved the decriminalization plan last year with Pope Francis’ approval.
The outlet also reported that Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin met with Espot in 2023, together with Archbishop Paul Gallagher, the Holy See’s foreign minister, to work toward a compromise on the matter.
Parolin visited Andorra in September 2023 amid rumors that Bishop Joan-Enric Vives, then-Bishop of Urgell, might abdicate as co-prince rather than sign an abortion bill into law, although Parolin ruled out the possibility.
The Vatican secretary of state said in a press conference then that the issue of abortion in Andorra was a “very delicate, very complex question that we need to face with a lot of discretion and a lot of wisdom.”
While only one of Andorra’s co-princes needs to sign a bill for it to become law, the fact that the Vatican has taken an active role in the compromise has led many to wonder if Serrano would also sign the law.
In his first public appearance as Bishop of Urgel on May 31, Serrano said that “there should be dialogue and support for those who suffer… [especially] women in a difficult position” due to abortion.
This was seen by many as a marked change of tone from his predecessor, Vives, who had threatened to abdicate if abortion was legalized in the country.
Vives had also rejected the possibility of signing any bill that would go against Catholic teaching into law, saying that “when the Andorran people ask for a Catholic bishop to be their Head of State, they know what it implies.”
However, laws on contentious issues passing without the signature of the Bishop of Urgell are hardly unprecedented.
For example, a law legalizing homosexual civil unions was signed exclusively by then-French president Jacques Chirac, as was the 2019 law of assisted reproduction, signed only by French President Emmanuel Macron.
The country, whose official language is Catalan, has, by law, two heads of state — the Bishop of Urgell and the President of France (currently Emmanuel Macron) — who are styled as co-princes.
The Urgell diocese, which dates back to the fifth century, serves around 212,000 Catholics from its base in La Seu d’Urgell, a town in Spanish Catalonia.
But the diocese also covers Andorra, a prosperous microstate with a population of 80,000 people, nestled between France and Spain in the Pyrenees mountains.
Pope Francis appointed then-Msgr. Josep-Lluis Serrano as coadjutor bishop of Urgell in July 2024, and he succeeded Vives on May 31.
Serrano, who served as secretary of the nunciature in Mozambique when Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra was apostolic nuncio, later worked as Peña Parra’s personal secretary during his tenure as sostituto of the Secretariat of State.
Serrano served briefly in 2019 as a director of London 60 SA Limited, a company created and owned by the Secretariat of State to manage the luxury property whose purchase led to the sprawling Vatican financial trial.
According to Andorran outlet La Veu Lliure, the leader of the majority in Andorra’s parliament confirmed that the bill would be filed this fall and is widely expected to pass.
The government is also preparing a companion bill that would maintain the country’s ban on performing abortions while providing public funding for women who travel to France or Spain to abort, La Veu Lliure reported.
Espot said in a March interview that the government was working “in a system in which abortion is criminalized… and you can’t abort in Andorra, but close by, with compensation from Andorran public services at all levels.”
“There will be a public service in Andorra accompanying those wishing to abort in France or Catalonia and then [Andorra] will compensate financially those in a situation of vulnerability,” he said.
In an Aug. 28 address to French politicians, Pope Leo XIV said that “Christianity cannot be reduced to a simple private devotion, because it implies a way of living in society imprinted by love for God and for one’s neighbour who, in Christ, is no longer an enemy but a brother.”
“I am well aware that the openly Christian commitment of a public official is not easy,” the pope added, “Neither do I ignore the pressure, the party directives, the “ideological colonizations”, to use an apt expression of Pope Francis, to which politicians are subjected. They must have the courage to say at times, “no, I cannot!”, when the truth is at stake. Here too, only union with Jesus – the crucified Jesus! – will give you this courage to suffer in his name.”
At the end of his September visit to Belgium, Pope Francis announced he’d open the beatification cause of King Baudoin of Belgium.
In 1990, Baudoin refused to sign a law that would legalize abortion until 12 weeks of pregnancy in Belgium, saying in a message to the country’s PM that he “[feared] that this law will contribute to a palpable diminution of respect for the lives of the weakest among us,” throwing the country into a constitutional crisis.
After significant pushback, Baudouin wrote a message saying: “To those who may be shocked by my decision, I ask them: Is it right that I am the only Belgian citizen to be forced to act against his conscience in such a crucial area? Is the freedom of conscience sacred for everyone except for the king?”
Ultimately, the Belgian government worked out a compromise in which Baudouin declared himself unfit to rule while the government passed the law and then restored him as king a few days later.