(CNN Spanish) — The president of Honduras, Xiomara Castro, signed this Wednesday together with the head of the Secretary of Health, Manuel Matheu, an executive agreement for the free use and commercialization of the emergency contraceptive pill (PAE) in the country, as reported by the president through their social networks.
In his publication, Castro argued that the World Health Organization (WHO) determined that the use of this pill is part of “the reproductive rights of women and is not abortive.”
Today, #8M we commemorate the historical struggle of women, signing with secretary @DrMatheu144 the Executive Agreement for free use and commercialization of the PAE. The World Health Organization (WHO) determined that it is part of the reproductive rights of women and is not abortive. pic.twitter.com/ELQPTzhfd5
— Xiomara Castro de Zelaya (@XiomaraCastroZ) March 9, 2023
The director of the Women’s Movement for Peace, Visitación Padilla Merlín Eguiguren, told CNN that having the emergency contraceptive pill is a women’s right and pointed out that they had been banned in 2009, when Roberto Micheletti took office. after the coup against the then president Manuel Zelaya Rosales.
This determination, said the defender of the right to abortion, will help many women to avoid unwanted pregnancies, especially due to sexual abuse of girls and adolescents.
For her part, the director of the non-governmental organization Provida de Honduras, Martha Lorena Casco, commented to CNN that what the executive branch does is legalize abortion in Honduras because in her opinion the PAE is an abortion pill.
The doctor and deputy for the Salvador Party of Honduras in the National Congress Carlos Umaña told CNN that, given the free sale of the PAE in Honduras, the government of Xiomara Castro must now start a massive education campaign on the use of the pill that , he said, it is not a contraceptive method, but an emergency pill that misused can bring complications to the woman.
Umaña added that the Executive should take advantage of the Comprehensive Law for the Prevention of Adolescent Pregnancy in Honduras, which was approved this Wednesday in the National Congress, to use it as a reference to initiate educational processes for minors on the use of the pill.
