Honduras’ woman president, Xiomara Castro, has lifted a longtime ban on the morning-after pill.
She signed an executive order on Wednesday March 8, International Women’s Day, to overturn the ban that was instituted in 2009.
Honduras, which is largely Catholic, had been the only country in the world that banned all emergency contraception pills.
After signing the order, Castro tweeted that according to the World Health Organization, emergency contraceptive pill was “part of women’s reproductive rights and not abortive”.
Abortion remains illegal in Honduras, which has one of the highest rates of teen pregnancy in Latin America, as well as high rates of sexual violence, according to rights groups.
Castro, who was elected as Honduras’ first woman president in 2021, had pledged to overturn the ban, as well as increase sexual education, fight gender violence and legalize abortion in limited circumstances.
Before the ban was lifted, emergency contraceptive pills were sold in pharmacies in major cities but women from poor and rural areas could not easily access them.
