The United Nations Committee Against Torture is debating whether abortion constitutes torture and whether canon law should be changed.

During the committee’s meeting in Geneva on Monday, Vice Chairwoman Felice Gaer castigated the Catholic Church’s blanket stance against all abortions, telling an audience comprising Vatican representatives that in some cases, the position may even violate the Convention Against Torture, CNS News reported.

 “Now the committee has found that laws – and this committee has found this repeatedly – that laws that criminalize termination of pregnancy in all circumstances can violate the convention,” Gaer said in a speech that also quoted from a letter the Center for Reproductive Rights abortion-rights advocacy group wrote to the European Court of Human Rights.