Honduras’ president indicators order ending the 10-year ban on the sale, use of ‘morning after capsule’

Honduran President Xiomara Castro signed an government order on Wednesday ending a ban of greater than 10 years on the use and sale of the “morning after capsule,” fulfilling a marketing campaign promise long-awaited by feminist teams.

Castro, the nation’s first feminine president, took workplace final yr after working on the promise of rolling again the nation’s restrictive reproductive insurance policies.

Honduras, a closely Catholic nation, banned the use and sale of the morning after capsule in 2009, arguing the emergency contraception would trigger abortions.

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Castro opened its use to rape victims in November.

The Central American nation criminalizes abortions, with these convicted dealing with as much as six years in jail, even in circumstances of rape or incest.

Honduras’ President Xiomara Castro addresses the group at a army ceremony after mobilizing 1000’s of cops to areas managed by felony teams, in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, on Dec. 9, 2022. Xiomara introduced that the nation is lifting the ban on the “morning after capsule” on Wednesday. ( REUTERS/Fredy Rodriguez)

Castro, who signed the order on International Women’s Day, tweeted that the morning after capsule was “a part of ladies’s reproductive rights, and never abortive,” citing the World Health Organization.

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Hundreds of ladies marched by means of Honduras’ largest cities of Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula on Wednesday with calls for starting from expanded reproductive rights to ending femicides, or the killing of ladies attributable to their gender.

The yr earlier than Castro took workplace, Honduras’ Congress handed a constitutional reform to guard anti-abortion legal guidelines, requiring a three-fourths vote to alter them.

Women’s and human rights teams filed greater than a dozen appeals, which have thus far been unsuccessful. Between 50,000 to 80,000 clandestine abortions happen annually within the nation, in keeping with a 2019 estimate from native rights teams.