Honduran President Xiomara Castro on Wednesday signed an executive order ending a ban of more than 10 years on the use and sale of the “morning after pill,” fulfilling a campaign promise long-awaited by feminist groups.
Castro, the country’s first female president, took office last year after running on the promise of rolling back the country’s restrictive reproductive policies.
Honduras, a heavily Catholic nation, banned the use and sale of the morning after pill in 2009, arguing the emergency contraception would cause abortions.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Castro opened its use to rape victims in November last year.
The Central American country criminalizes abortions, with those convicted facing up to six years in prison, even in cases of rape or incest.
Castro, who signed the order on International Women’s Day, wrote on Twitter that the morning after pill was “part of women’s reproductive rights, and not abortive,” citing the WHO.
Hundreds of women marched through Honduras’ largest cities of Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula on Wednesday with demands ranging from expanded reproductive rights to ending femicides, or the killing of women due to their gender.
The year before Castro took office, the Honduran Congress passed a constitutional reform to protect anti-abortion laws, requiring a three-quarter vote to change them.
Women’s and human rights groups filed more than a dozen appeals, which have so far been unsuccessful. Between 50,000 to 80,000 clandestine abortions occur each year in the country, according to a 2019 estimate from local rights groups.
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