Honduras: the only Latin American country with a total ban on the morning-after pill

Under the argument that it was abortifacient, in April 2009, the National Congress sought to prohibit the promotion, use, sale, purchase, and any policy or program related to the emergency contraceptive pill (ECP).

At that time, the country had been allowing its legal distribution and use for nearly ten years.

Then President José Manuel Zelaya Rosales vetoed decree 54-2009 because he considered that its content violated the guarantees and freedoms declared in the Constitution of the Republic and international treaties signed and ratified by Honduras regarding equality, freedom, security, and respect for women’s human rights.

However, four months after the coup d’état against Zelaya Rosales, in October 2009, the de facto Secretary of Health Mario Noé Villafranca issued ministerial agreement 2744-2009 that would finally prohibit ECP.

Afterward, during the administrations of nationalist Porfirio Lobo Sosa (2010-2014) and Juan Orlando Hernández (2014-2022), the authorities maintained their position that PAE was abortifacient and, therefore, stopped any attempt to declare unconstitutional the decree that led to its prohibition.

Among the voices urging for a review of the legislation on the pill was that of Villafranca himself, who, as a deputy during 2018-2022, made a demonstration seeking to rectify the position he had taken a decade earlier.

Meanwhile, now-president Xiomara Castro -the first woman president of Honduras and wife of Zelaya Rosales- proposed in her government plan to facilitate the distribution, sale, and use of the ECP.

She also proposed to decriminalize abortion on three grounds: in case of rape, in case the mother’s life is at risk, and in case of fetal malformations that prevent a dignified life, but more than nine months into her administration, only this week there was an advance that was not expected by the different organizations that demand the State to defend reproductive rights.

PLANS TO APPROVE ECP ONLY IN CASES OF RAPE

At the beginning of the week, the Secretary of Health, José Matheu, announced that the Government of Honduras plans to use the morning-after pill for rape victims, even though the total prohibition of abortion continues.

“We are going to make the pill available to rape victims because it is not a contraceptive method,” said the official during an event with women’s organizations.

“We are waiting for it to come out of the regulations unit to sign it,” she added, without clarifying how health authorities would verify rape allegations or distribute the pill.

However, the announcement has received backlash from different organizations and women’s rights advocates.

“It is not the promise that the government made in its campaign, and it is not the promise that the feminist movement had when talking to the president,” said activist Ana Lucia Perez to the capital’s media.

The Center for Women’s Studies has also emphasized that Honduras is the only country with a total ban on emergency contraception and, together with El Salvador, Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic, and Haiti, one of the five countries in the continent that prohibits involuntary interruption of pregnancy without exceptions.

VIOLATION OF WOMEN’S RIGHTS DOCUMENTED

According to data cited by Human Rights Watch, 56% of pregnancies in Honduras between 2015 and 2019 were unwanted, and most could have been caused by rape.

In 2019, the Public Prosecutor’s Office received 2,773 complaints of sexual violence against women and girls.

According to this data, the most affected age groups include girls and women between the ages of 10 and 19 years (accounting for 54% of cases), girls aged nine years or younger (13%), and women between the ages of 20 and 29 years (12%).

In 2021, the number of sexual violence complaints received by the Public Prosecutor’s Office totaled 2,896.

In 2019, the New York-based organization documented how the total ban on abortion and emergency contraception in Honduras violated the rights of women and girls and put their health and lives at risk.

The report included testimony from Honduran women facing the cruel effects of the abortion ban, including a woman forced to bear her rapist’s child; a woman facing jail after having a miscarriage; women who had unsafe abortions; a doctor who may not always act in the best interests of her patients; and a pastor who faced death threats for her activism.

WOMEN’S STATISTICS TO BE UPDATED

The National Institute of Statistics (INE), with the support of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), through the Infosegura project, informed that starting next week, they will begin the data collection process of the national survey on the “Situation of women in Honduras”, which will serve to know various dimensions that affect Honduran women.

The sample is of 7,200 households distributed in the 18 departments of the country.

This survey has been created to expand and generate statistical data in various areas that impact women, especially the personal impacts of violence, the obstacles they face when seeking help, the responses of the justice system, and social and health services, explained officials.

According to INE Director Eugenio Sosa, disaggregated, timely, and reliable data on women in the country is needed.

“To measure the magnitude and dimensions of the problem, establish basic parameters, identify high-risk groups, focus interventions and prevention activities where they are most needed, monitor changes over time, and evaluate the effectiveness of interventions.”

With information from Bloomberg