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President Xiomara Castro of Honduras signed an government order on Wednesday that lifted a longtime ban on emergency contraceptive capsules, delivering on a marketing campaign promise for a coverage change that was sought by feminist teams for years.
Ms. Castro, who signed the order on Worldwide Girls’s Day, mentioned on Twitter that the emergency contraceptive tablet was “a part of girls’s reproductive rights, and never abortive,” citing the World Well being Group.
The order was celebrated by human rights and feminist organizations, and it was a serious victory for Ms. Castro, who was elected the primary feminine president of Honduras in 2021 and campaigned on overturning the ban on emergency contraceptive capsules, amongst different points.
However, in a rustic that’s closely Catholic, Ms. Castro’s order nonetheless discovered resistance.
Mirtha Gutiérrez, Honduras’s human rights secretary, mentioned that the president’s order was a “nice step” and that the Honduran authorities would proceed to do extra for ladies.
“We consider as a authorities that you will need to proceed advancing within the rights of ladies,” Ms. Gutiérrez mentioned. “That is the start of an extended joint effort with the ladies of Honduras.”
Honduras was beforehand the one nation on the earth recognized to have a blanket authorized ban on emergency contraception capsules, in accordance with the Worldwide Consortium for Emergency Contraception, a coverage analysis group. The ban was enacted in 2009. Honduras remains to be amongst just a few Latin American international locations that prohibit abortion below any circumstances.
Human Rights Watch, a world group, mentioned that Ms. Castro’s order “is especially essential in a context the place abortion is against the law in all circumstances and constitutes a step ahead within the recognition of the reproductive rights of pregnant individuals.”
Regina Fonseca, a feminist activist and a co-founder of the Girls’s Rights Heart in Honduras, mentioned the president’s order was “an infinite triumph” that was 13 years within the making.
“What number of ladies had their wings reduce as a result of they needed to expertise maternity early?” Ms. Fonseca mentioned. “It’s so nice that now we have this now and that future generations could have higher alternatives than those now we have had these previous few years.”
However not all Hondurans had been supportive of the president’s order, and a few weren’t even conscious of it. Within the nation’s capital of Tegucigalpa, close to the Hospital Escuela, the most important help heart in Honduras, few individuals knew of the approval.
Sandra Sierra, 30, a home employee, mentioned she opposed the president’s order.
“It’s harmful for his or her well being,” Ms. Sierra mentioned of the capsules’ results. Whereas emergency contraceptive capsules might trigger negative effects, similar to nausea and vomiting, the U.S. Meals and Drug Administration has deemed it protected to make use of when taken as instructed.
Ana María Cáceres, 42, a avenue vendor and a mom of three youngsters, was accompanying her 20-year-old daughter to a being pregnant session when she discovered of the announcement. Her daughter is six months pregnant together with her second baby.
“So long as there was a rape, it’s nice as a result of there are girls who, in the event that they’ve been abused, don’t need to have a toddler,” Ms. Cáceres mentioned. “However when it’s like that for pleasure, no.”
Using emergency contraception in Honduras has been lengthy opposed by main Christian congregations, which have argued that such capsules might terminate a longtime being pregnant.
These teams have cited the label of Plan B One-Step, a well-liked emergency contraceptive in america. The tablet’s package deal says it’s doable for the remedy to cease a fertilized egg from attaching to the uterus. Nevertheless, scientific proof has not supported that concept; in December, the F.D.A. introduced that it will make clear data on broadly used emergency contraceptive capsules to say that they don’t cease a fertilized egg from implanting within the womb. The company defined that such merchandise can’t be described as abortion capsules.
The wording change by the F.D.A. got here months after the Supreme Courtroom overturned Roe v. Wade, eliminating the constitutional proper to an abortion, and amid considerations from abortion rights advocates that conservative states might restrict or ban using morning-after capsules.
Earlier than the ban on emergency contraceptive capsules was lifted this week in Honduras, such medicines nonetheless had been brazenly bought in some pharmacies in main cities for about $10 per dose, however girls in poor and rural areas didn’t have easy accessibility to them, in accordance with girls’s rights advocates.
The Heart for Reproductive Rights Latin America and Caribbean Program mentioned on Twitter on Thursday that the order was a “optimistic advance” for Honduras, however the group additionally known as on federal officers to create a concrete implementation plan of the order and to ensure distribution and accessibility.
The middle mentioned accessing emergency contraception capsules was particularly essential in Honduras, which has one of many highest charges of teenage being pregnant amongst Latin American international locations. Sexual violence charges are additionally excessive there.
Ms. Fonseca mentioned her group would proceed to name on the Honduran authorities to move laws to guard girls from sexual violence and to offer postpartum care.
“There’s extra work to be achieved,” Ms. Fonseca mentioned. “However this was basic.”
Anatoly Kurmanaev contributed reporting.
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