Honduras President Xiomara Castro ends ban on morning after pill

Honduras President Xiomara Castro waves during a swearing-in ceremony for Colombia's President Gustavo Petro on August 7, 2022 in Bogota, Colombia. On March 8, 2023, Castro signed an executive order ending the ban on more than 10 years on the use and sale of the morning after pill, fulfilling a campaign promise long-awaited by feminist groups. PHOTO AP TEGUCIGALPA Honduran President Xiomara Castro signed an executive order on Wednesday ending a ban of more than 10 years on the use and sale of the morning after pill, fulfilling a campaign promise long-awaited by feminist groups.

Castro, the nation's first female president, took office last year after running on the promise of rolling back the country's restrictive reproductive policies.

Honduras, a heavily Catholic nation, banned the use and sale of the morning after pill in 2009, arguing that emergency contraception would cause abortions.

In November, Castro opened its use to rape victims.

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The Central American country criminalizes abortions, with those who are guilty of up to six years in prison facing up to six years in prison, even in cases of rape or incest.

The order on International Women's Day was signed by Castro on the morning after the pill was part of women's reproductive rights, and not abortive, according to the World Health Organization.

On Wednesday, hundreds of women marched through the largest cities of San Pedro Sula and Tegucigalpa with demands from expanded reproductive rights to ending femicides, or the killing of women due to their gender.

The year before Castro took office, the Honduras Congress passed a constitutional reform to protect anti-abortion laws, which required a three-fourths vote to change them.

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More than a dozen women's and human rights groups have tried to appeal the decision, which has so far been unsuccessful. Between 50,000 and 80,000 clandestine abortions occur each year in the country, according to a 2019 estimate from local rights groups.