Emergency contraception in Honduras is a highly contentious topic that gets virtually no coverage in English. English press loves covering the debate over abortion in Honduras and the efforts of various factions in Honduras to legalize abortion but for some reason despite efforts by groups to legalize emergency contraception the topic has nowhere the same amount of press coverage. Despite the lack of press coverage the impact of losing legal access to emergency contraception has had a very real effect on women in Honduras and is worth talking about.

The Ban On Emergency Contraception:

In 2009 the president of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya vetoed a ban on emergency contraception. Months later he was ousted from power. I am not framing this in this manner to suggest that the two events are linked but shortly after former President Zelaya was ousted the health minister of the Constitutional Crisis government issued a ban on emergency contraception which lasted until 2012 when the ban was upheld and reinforced by the country’s Supreme Court. This was a stunning act of either ignorance or maliciousness given that the narrative that was used to justify the ban was that possessing an emergency contraceptive pill constituted an abortion attempt. They don’t. Emergency contraceptives are not abortion-pills and that was understood in 2012 as well as it is now.

The function of emergency contraception is not to end pregnancies but to prevent them. It does this by preventing the release of an egg, by stopping sperm from fertilizing an egg, or even stopping a fertilized egg from implanting in the uterus. This is different from abortion pills which end existing pregnancies and to treat them like they are the same thing is incredibly dishonest. If taking steps to prevent a pregnancy constitutes an attempted abortion Honduras’s Supreme Court ought to have criminalized condoms as well.

The Consequences Of This Ban:

I wrote an article for The Honduras Report which talks about this in greater detail but the primary consequences of this ban are that survivors of rape and sexual assault are not able to be given emergency contraception which has been scientifically shown to significantly reduce the risk of pregnancy in the wake of these crimes. Can you imagine having to tell someone who is afraid of being pregnant with the child of her abuser that you cannot give her contraception which would gigantically reduce the risk of pregnancy? Because that’s what doctors have to do in Honduras.

At best this is the result of genuine scientific and medical illiteracy rather than religiously fueled partisan acts of prejudice aimed at controlling the reproductive health of women but even if it is the result of genuine scientific illiteracy that’s not an excuse over half a decade later. I get that this topic isn’t as flashy as the debate over legalizing abortion in Honduras but I honestly cannot fathom why this hasn’t been the subject of more conversations in English especially since people have reported that Honduras is the only Latin-American country which has outlawed emergency contraception.

I also don’t understand why there isn’t a stronger coalition of groups that is perpetually fighting to legalize emergency contraception in Honduras. I’m sure there is a group but for some reason they have virtually no social media presence, despite the fact that you can find dozens of entries on social media about groups fighting in support of the PAE and asking for it to be legalized from as early as 2014 to as recently as mid 2016. Given the fact that logically this is almost certainly an easier sell then legalizing abortion I am dumb-founded by the relative lack of cohesion of the various groups who’ve taken to social media to call for the legalization of the PAE and I can’t fathom why there isn’t greater coordination to launch a concentrated and solid campaign in favor of legalizing emergency contraception.

Emergency contraception shouldn’t be given exclusively to survivors of rape and sexual assault but giving it to them and getting rid of this monstrous ban would be a good start for seekers of reproductive justice in Honduras. We understand that emergency contraception doesn’t initiate abortions and that old falsehood deserves to be a thought of the past. It’s time for scientific literacy to be valued among Honduras’s Supreme Court and legislators and for this ban to be repealed.

I’d love to know your thoughts on this, particularly if you’re someone who is affected by this ban in some capacity.