Burner phones, aliases, code words: The secret networks that women use to circumvent Honduras’ abortion ban

MAY 20, 2023
Associated Press

Inside a little wooden house among the pine and oak forests of western Honduras' coffee-growing mountains, a woman opened a tiny package of pills, delivered to a nearby town. She didn't know it, but the medication had more than likely entered the country hidden in an activist's suitcase, from Mexico.

The woman, 27, was confident in her decision to have an abortion, but in the moment, she panicked. She knew she was breaking national law banning all abortions and could be prosecuted. Even more, she feared medical complications, or her religious family finding out.

Continued: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/burner-phones-aliases-code-words-how-secret-networks-help-women-circumvent-honduras-abortion-ban/

Honduras lifts decade-long ban on ‘morning after pill’

March 8, 2023
Reuters

TEGUCIGALPA - Honduran President Xiomara Castro signed an executive order on Wednesday 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.

Continued: https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/honduras-lifts-decade-long-ban-morning-after-pill-2023-03-09/

08.03.2023

News

clandestine abortions

emergency contraception

International Women's Day

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/

How US abortion organisers are learning from Honduran activistsc

As networks, some clandestine, form to help women access abortion in the US, they look to Central America for a road map – and a warning.

By Delaney Nolan
Published On 19 Feb 2023

New Orleans, United States – The half dozen women gathered in the backyard pause for a moment to listen to the television next door. The neighbour is playing a football game at high volume. It’s loud. That’s good – it gives them cover.

“I couldn’t hear anything from the sidewalk,” says Ana,* referring to the women’s conversation. “I think we’re OK,” says another. The rest are reassured.

Continued: https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2023/2/19/how-us-abortion-organisers-are-learning-from-honduran-activists

Inside Honduras’s abortion pill black market

Dec 8, 2022
By Megha Mohan, Yousef Eldin and Ana Paola Avila

Honduras's first woman president, Xiomara Castro, campaigned on a promise to overhaul the country's super-restrictive policies on female reproductive rights within 100 days in office. A year later it's been announced that the morning-after pill will be legalised - but in cases of rape only.

Laura meets us in the hour after sunset, as the last of the day's light is quickly fading. She's 25 years old, two months pregnant, and not ready for a child.

Continued: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-63905544

Argentina: Can one country’s change of abortion law alter a continent?

By Katy Watson, BBC South America correspondent
March 4, 2021

When Argentina's Congress voted to legalise abortion up to the 14th week of pregnancy, Renata (not her real name) felt excited.

"How cool," the 20-year-old from
northern Brazil remembers thinking in late December. A student and supermarket
worker, Renata saw it as the start of something new in a region where abortion
is mostly illegal.

But she thought little more of it until a
week later, when she found out she was pregnant herself. Then, she says, her
world collapsed.

Continued: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-56098334

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

How lawmakers made it nearly impossible to legalize abortion in Honduras

By Tatiana Arias, CNN
Sun January 31, 2021

(CNN)This week, lawmakers in Honduras changed the country's constitution to make it virtually impossible to legalize abortion in the future -- an extreme election-year move that critics warn will further endanger women's health.

On Thursday, the country's Congress ratified a January 21 amendment to constitutional Article 67, which now specifically prohibits any "interruption of life" to a fetus, "whose life must be respected from the moment of conception."

Continued: https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/31/americas/honduras-abortion-ban-ratified-intl/index.html

31.01.2021

anti-choice ignorance

anti-choice misogyny

Catholic Church

clandestine abortion

constitutional amendment to ban abortion

Doctors Without Borders

emergency contraception

evangelicals and abortion

Gloria Bonilla

Human Rights Watch

Juan Orlando Hernandez

Margaret Wurth

Merly Eguigure

Movimiento de Mujeres por La Paz

Neesa Medina

Oswaldo Canales

religion and abortion

sexual violence

Shield Against Abortion in Honduras

United Nations Population Fund

Visitación Padilla

Women's Rights Center

Today is Honduran Women’s Day: an unjust Constitutional amendment that disregards women’s lives must be rejected

Press release, 25 January 2021: for immediate publication
Somos Muchas

After the decision by the Argentine Congress on 29 December 2020 to legalise abortion for both public health reasons and in support of women’s rights, everyone is waiting to see what the rest of Latin America will do. Responses from Mexico, Brazil, Jamaica – and now Honduras – have already become public. The response from the Congress of Honduras is bad news for all women and girls in the country and in the region – it shows a complete disregard for Honduran women’s health and lives. Yet ironically, it is due to be ratified on Honduran Women’s Day without consultation and with undue haste.

In every country in Latin America, there is a strong women’s movement that has been calling for safe and legal abortion for many years. Although legal reform has been slow, due to the powerful influence of conservative religious and political forces, many changes have still taken place.

Continued: https://mailchi.mp/safeabortionwomensright/press-release-somos-muchas?e=372dd34034

Honduran Lawmakers Vote to Lock in Bans on Abortion, Same-Sex Marriage

By Reuters
Jan. 21, 2021

TEGUCIGALPA (REUTERS) - Members of the Honduran Congress voted on Thursday to amend the constitution making it much harder to reverse existing hard-line bans on abortion and same-sex marriage, as lawmakers double down on socially conservative priorities.

Lawmakers voted to require a three-quarters super-majority to change a constitutional article that gives a fetus the same legal status of a person, and another that states that civil marriage in the Central American nation can only be between a man and a woman.

Continued: https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2021-01-21/honduran-lawmakers-vote-to-lock-in-bans-on-abortion-same-sex-marriage

21.01.2021