These Women Are Fighting Back Against Honduras’s Incredibly Harsh Abortion Laws

In a country with some of the strictest laws curbing reproductive rights in the Western Hemisphere, a diverse group of women-led activists are taking action, from TikTok to the Supreme Court.

Story by Kaelyn Forde
Photos by Nincy Perdomo
March 7, 2023

Elena was 21 when she went to the emergency room with severe abdominal pain and was told she was pregnant. The news came as a shock. Living in one of the poorest neighborhoods in Tegucigalpa — the sprawling capital of Honduras — Elena (whose name has been changed here to protect her privacy) lacked access to proper nutrition and had received no prenatal care, since she didn’t even know she was pregnant. At the public hospital that day in 2017, she learned she was suffering from an internal infection and severe anemia. Elena was told her fetus had died, and she spent three days in the emergency room.

But what came after the miscarriage was even more shocking.

Continued: https://narratively.com/these-women-are-fighting-back-against-hondurass-incredibly-harsh-abortion-laws/

In Honduras, the Right Is Permanently Locking in Its Abortion Ban

BY SUYAPA PORTILLO
Jacobin Magazine, March 1, 2021

In a country
that is already home to some of the worst restrictions on women’s rights, the
Honduran Congress voted last month to lock in its bans on abortion and gay
marriage, making them almost impossible to overturn. It’s a reminder that, as
the feminist green tide washes over much of Latin America, there is still much
work to be done.

On January 28, on the heels of Honduran Women’s Day (January 25), the far-right
Nationalist Party–led Congress dealt a blow to feminists, LGBT people, and
countless Hondurans who believe in equality and human rights. With little
notice and virtually no public input, the Congress voted to amend the constitution
by enshrining the “right to life at conception” and by instituting a narrow
definition of marriage as “between a man and a woman.” Rushing the vote along
partisan lines, normal rules of procedure were suspended, and even advocates
closely following these issues were blindsided by the alacrity of the
fundamental change to the nation’s most important document.

Continued: https://jacobinmag.com/2021/03/honduras-abortion-ban-constitutional-amendment

Honduras strict abortion law: Women judged no matter the verdict

Honduras strict abortion law: Women judged no matter the verdict
Honduran women accused of having abortions - even if not convicted - face years of stigmatisation.

Anna-Cat Brigida
18 Sept 2019

Tegucigalpa, Honduras - On a rainy day two years ago, 26-year-old domestic worker Lucia* was sent outside to shut the gate of her employer's home in a rural area on the outskirts of the Honduran capital. Her employers didn't want the sheep to get out. As Lucia headed back inside, she slipped and fell, hitting her back on the ground, according to court documents. She didn't know it at the time, but she was 24 weeks pregnant.

During the early hours the following morning, Lucia screamed in pain. Another domestic worker informed Lucia's employer, who then took her to a nearby hospital in Tegucigalpa, a 20-minute drive from her home. There Lucia learned that she had been more than five months pregnant and had lost the fetus. But what Lucia could not have known then was that her long journey of trauma was only just beginning.

Continued: https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/honduras-strict-abortion-law-women-judged-matter-verdict-190917221108819.html