ABORTION FOR SEXUAL VIOLENCE: RIGHT TO LIFE VS. RIGHT TO EQUALITY

Ecuadorian legislation prohibited the voluntary interruption of pregnancy, except in cases of rape of disabled women, considering that such a pronouncement entails discriminatory parameters for the woman victim of sexual violence and presupposes unconstitutionality, insofar as it undermines the right to equality. In July 2019, several lawsuits and amicus curaie were filed by civil society organizations and individuals, against the criminal law that regulates punishable and non-punishable abortion, admitted by the Constitutional Court of Ecuador. The methodology of legal and exegetical theoretical analysis of Judgment 34-19-IN/21, issued in April 2021, with binding character, leads us to a legal debate around relevant principles of law. Analyzing the foundations of constitutional judges in the face of the collision of the right to life, with the rights to equality, physical integrity and human dignity, which sustain the voluntary interruption of pregnancy due to rape, as a right of any woman without discrimination, is the objective of this research. The legislative modification proposed in the Constitutional Resolution will not only cause a transformative impact on Ecuadorian society, but will also require the collaboration and effort of several professionals, law and health to face new difficulties in its execution.