Constitutional Court declares inadmissible complaint over abortion law

Santo Domingo.– The Constitutional Court (TC) declared inadmissible a direct action of unconstitutionality filed by the Justice and Transparency Foundation (FJT) against Articles 107, 108, 109 and 110 of Law 550-14, which establishes the new Penal Code in the Dominican Republic referring to abortion.

The TC ruled against the FJT for lack of quality of the plaintiffs, since they did not show a legitimate and legally protected interest, as provided by Articles 185.1 of the Constitution and 37 of Law 137-11 and TC constitutional procedures.

Indeed, many authors agree in saying that while the function of constitutional jurisdiction lies in the binding interpretation of a Constitution with normative strength and primacy, the limits of its jurisprudence lies precisely in the Constitution.

Article 107 on abortion says: "Except as provided in Article 110, who through food, beverages, medicines, rods, treatment or any other means causes disruption of a woman’s pregnancy or cooperates with that purpose, even if she consents, shall be punished with two to three years of simple imprisonment."