President ends ban and makes emergency contraception extensively accessible : NPR

Honduran President Xiomara Castro signed a brand new govt doc Wednesday night time that may permit open entry to emergency contraception.

Office of the Honduran Presidency

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Office of the Honduran Presidency

Honduran President Xiomara Castro signed a brand new govt doc Wednesday night time that may permit open entry to emergency contraception.

Office of the Honduran Presidency

Women’s rights activists in Honduras are celebrating a significant victory, after President Xiomara Castro introduced that her authorities will carry its near-total ban on the emergency contraception capsule.

“Having entry to PAE is life-changing for the ladies in Honduras, particularly contemplating the alarming charges of violence,” Jinna Rosales of the advocacy group Strategy Group for PAE — the medication is called PAE, for Píldora Anticonceptiva de Emergencia — informed NPR.

“With a complete abortion ban, PAE is usually our solely choice right here – it being accessible to all will save lives,” the group mentioned by way of e mail.

Castro introduced the reversal Wednesday night time, within the remaining hours of International Women’s Day. As she undid the coverage, Castro famous that the World Health Organization says the capsule will not be “abortive.”

The WHO’s coverage advice states, “All girls and women vulnerable to an unintended being pregnant have a proper to entry emergency contraception and these strategies needs to be routinely included inside all nationwide household planning packages.”

Legalization will undo a 2009 ban

For years, Honduras was the one nation within the Americas to have an absolute ban on the sale or use of emergency contraception, also referred to as morning-after or “Plan B” drugs. It additionally prohibits abortion in all circumstances.

Honduras moved to ban emergency contraception in 2009, because the nation went by means of political and social upheaval. Its supreme courtroom affirmed the ban in 2012.

After Castro turned the nation’s first feminine president, Honduras barely eased its stance on the medication. But when Minister of Health José Manuel Matheu announced that coverage shift final fall, critics mentioned i did not go far sufficient, as the medication would solely be made authorized in circumstances of rape.

At the time, Matheu mentioned the capsule did not qualify as a technique of contraception. But on Wednesday night time, he joined Castro at her desk to signal a brand new govt settlement along with her, opening the trail to emergency contraception.

Activists known as on Bad Bunny to assist

Groups in Honduras that pushed for open entry to emergency contraception embrace Strategy Group for PAE, or GEPAE, which has been working with the U.S.-based Women’s Equality Center.

Due to its unlawful standing, “PAE was sporadically accessible by means of underground networks,” Rosales mentioned, “however entry was very restricted given stigma, lack of understanding, excessive costs, and lack of entry in additional rural areas.”

When Puerto Rican rapper and pop star Bad Bunny toured Honduras, GEPAE used eye-catching billboards to name on the artist behind the hit “Me Porto Bonito” — which references the Plan B capsule — to induce Honduran leaders to legalize emergency contraception.

The group Centro de Derechos de Mujeres, the Center for Women’s Rights, welcomed the information, saying by means of social media, “Our rights should not stay the bargaining chip of governments!”

Violence towards girls in Honduras has lengthy been at a disaster stage. According to the Gender Equality Observatory for Latin America and the Caribbean, Honduras had the best price of femicide of any nation within the area in 2021, the latest yr tabulated on its web site.