The Criminalization of Women for Abortion in Honduras

In Latin America, abortion is legal without justification in four countries and legal with one or more justifications in 12 countries. Honduras is one of six Latin American countries that fully criminalize abortion — along with El Salvador, Nicaragua, Haiti, Suriname, and the Dominican Republic — with penalties established in criminal law ranging from three to 10 years in prison. During the advocacy process led by Somos Muchas, “For the Liberty and Life of Women,” for the decriminalization of abortion in Honduras between 2016 and 2017, no data was collected on women prosecuted for having abortions. This weakened advocacy strategies around the new Penal Code that could raise awareness among decision-makers about the direct impact of criminalization on women’s health and lives.

This report is an analysis of the criminal proceedings and legal criteria regarding cases of women prosecuted for abortion from 2006 to 2018 in Honduras, using a legal-social approach and from a gender and human rights perspective.