The president of Honduras, Xiomara Castro, signed an executive agreement on Wednesday through which the use and commercialization of the emergency contraceptive pill (PAE) is allowed in the country, according to the Press Secretariat on Twitter.
Congressman and doctor Marco Eliud Girón told The Associated Press that this is good news since the measure allows women to recover their right to reproductive health.
“The pill is not an abortion, it is authorized by the World Health Organization and the Pan American Health Organization (…) it is used by all member countries and Honduras was one of the few countries where its use was prohibited,” said Girón , legislator from President Castro’s Libertad y Refoundación party.
For her part, the former president of the Honduran Medical College, Suyapa Figueroa, a deputy from the Salvador Party of Honduras, told the AP that the problems of women in Honduras go beyond the simple approval of the use and commercialization of PAE.
“Its approval is not a guarantee of respect for women’s demands. In Honduras we do not have enough education, nor respect for basic rights for this to be taken as a triumph,” said the conservative legislator, adding that in the country the majority of victims of abuse are girls and “rapists provide those substances (…) to prevent the pregnancy from being the one reporting the abuse of the minor.”
Figueroa also affirmed that if the approval of the pill is not accompanied by education and a comprehensive approach to women’s rights, it will only serve for girls to receive excessive doses of hormones that, according to him, will have negative repercussions on their health.
In Honduras, the use and commercialization of PAE was legal until April 2, 2009, when it was prohibited by a decree approved in the National Congress.
After the president came to power, feminist organizations had requested the decriminalization of the PAE and Castro promised to authorize its use.
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