Colombia Minister of Health states that children’s power belongs to the State

The Colombian senator Mauricio Giraldo announced that they will summon the Minister of Health, Guillermo Alfonso Jaramillo, for his controversial statements in which he affirmed that the parental authority of minors belongs to the State.

The minister said these words during the presentation of the National Vaccination Plan to face the increase in yellow fever in Colombia.

“From every boy, girl, adolescent, under 18, parental authority is from the State. If there is any denial on the part of a father or mother to vaccinate the child, the Colombian Institute for Family Welfare (ICBF) intercedes,” Jaramillo said.

Then he said: “There is already an mayor’s office that has done very well and has reported more than 20 cases for the National Institute of Health to intervene so that these children are vaccinated. Because parental rights about children is in the name of the State. Then no father can be denied to his children being vaccinated.”

This caused controversy nationwide and received the rejection of sectors in favor of the family.

Among them, Senator Giraldo, who rejected the statements of Gustavo Petro’s government minister.

“Minister, is not wrong: with our children he does not get into. The parental authority belongs to the parents, not of the State. The Constitution says, it is established by the Civil Code and dictates the common sense,” said the senator.

The next day, the Ministry of Health He took a statement To say that Minister’s statements had been “taken from context” and that “they should not interpret as a manifestation or intention to violate the parental rights of Colombians.”

This was rejected by the senator, who indicated that “the minister did not improvise or be misunderstood, he simply reaffirmed what he had already officialized in resolution 309 of 2025, issued by his own office.”

Mauricio Giraldo said that this resolution “reflects a deeply ideologized vision that seeks to disassemble the role of parents in raising and protection of their children.”

“It allows minors to access sensitive medical procedures – such as abortion, hormonal treatments and sex change – without the consent of their parents, it promotes” gender identity “in childhood, ignores parental rights, violates the religious freedom of families and enables children to identify before the health system without intervention of their parents.”

Therefore, he announced that he will interpose an action of nullity with a precautionary measure against the resolution and that he will summon the minister “to a debate of political control in the Senate, so that the country gives accounts for this serious interference in the rights of the parents and the sovereignty of families.”