Honduras Limits Women’s Reproductive Rights

The Honduran government has fully criminalized abortion in all cases.

Women seeking reproductive healthcare in Honduras have limited options—the country has fully criminalized abortion in all cases. This includes instances of rape and incest, when the pregnant woman is in danger, and when the fetus is not viable.

Honduran law defines abortion as “the death of a human being at any moment during pregnancy or birth.” Al Jazeera reports that the penalty for having an abortion is 3 to 6 years in prison. Furthermore, the penalty for performing an abortion is up to 10 years in prison, though the government can increase the punishment depending on their evaluation of the severity of the crime.

The law has drawn domestic and international criticism. Margaret Wurth, a senior official at the Human Rights Watch, told Reuters: “Honduras’ draconian law is leading to enormous suffering among women and girls and their families.”

This sentiment is shared by the majority of Honduran people. According to a 2017 survey directed by public opinion firm Le Vote, “60 percent of Honduran men and 64 percent of Honduran women were in favor of approving abortion in cases of rape, an unviable fetus, or danger to the mother’s life.”

United Nations experts have also urged the government to reform the abortion laws to meet the international standards for reproductive healthcare. In a document released by the United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner, the office describes the total ban on abortion as “the most blatant form of instrumentalization of women’s bodies and denial of their autonomy.”

Furthermore, the organization declared that “criminalizing termination of pregnancy does not reduce abortion rates; on the contrary, more women will likely resort to clandestine and dangerous solutions.” For this reason, it is impossible to know the exact amount of abortions that have been performed in Honduras.

However, according to an independent research paper titled “Secreto a voces: una reseña sobre el aborto en Honduras” by the Honduran non-governmental organization Centro de Derechos de Mujeres, there are between 50,000 to 80,000 abortions each year in Honduras.

Since 2009, Honduras has been the only country in Latin America to ban emergency contraception. There has been a recent push to reform the law to allow for the use of the “morning-after pill,” a pill designed to block the fertilization of an egg and prematurely terminate a pregnancy.

In 2019, advocates for reproductive rights in Honduras have launched a campaign called Hablemos Lo Que Es, which serves to demystify misconceptions about emergency contraceptives. The efforts of this group are mainly concentrated in rural regions, where women are often not educated about their reproductive healthcare options.

Honduras is 1 of 7 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean to fully ban and criminalize abortions. BBC reports that a recent bill to allow for abortion in certain cases in Ecuador has also been blocked by the Ecuadorian parliament, indicating a trend in reproductive rights policy in Latin America.