Expanding Access to Emergency Contraception in Honduras​

LOCATION:
Honduras

PARTNERS:
DKT International, ASHONPLAFA, GEPAE, Dicosa, Ministry of Health, Instituto Hondureño de Seguridad Social

FUNDERS:
Summit Foundation, Anonymous

Over half of pregnancies in Honduras are unintended and nearly a quarter of women have an unmet need for modern contraception.

 

THE NEED:

For over a decade, emergency contraception was banned in Honduras—leaving women and girls without access to a critical tool for preventing unintended pregnancies, especially in cases of sexual violence. Even after the ban was lifted in 2023, major gaps remained in the legal understanding, provider readiness, supply chains, and public awareness necessary to ensure equitable access across the country.
 
 

 

OUR APPROACH:

Optio’s approach to expanding access to emergency contraception (EC) in Honduras is holistic and collaborative. In 2022, we conducted a national assessment to identify the barriers to EC access—engaging government agencies, medical associations, NGOs, and private distributors. This assessment became a foundational roadmap used by president Xiomara Castro’s Cabinet to guide the reintroduction of EC into the country.

Since then, we have worked across sectors to operationalize this roadmap. We partnered with DKT to procure and distribute EC and collaborated with public and private healthcare providers to improve provider readiness and understanding of the legal framework. To support public awareness and acceptability of EC, we launched a national communications campaign in partnership with GEPAE, combining radio outreach, social media, and educational materials to reach diverse audiences. These aimed to dispel misinformation and ensure compassionate, rights-based care, dispel misinformation, and ensure accessibility of EC for all.

 

IMPACT:

Optio has helped transform legal reform into meaningful access to emergency contraception (EC) in Honduras. Just two days after the national EC ban was lifted, we worked with DKT to submit the PostPil™ registration dossier, which was approved in July 2023. We trained 114 private healthcare providers and 169 community counselors on safe use, secured a reduced price of $1.76 per tablet, and donated 5,000 EC pills to ASHONPLAFA—a national family planning association—leading to national distribution across high-demand areas and an additional 10,000 tablets being secured due to high demand.

In 2024, we expanded our work with the Honduran Social Security Institute (IHSS), which serves 40% of employed individuals and their families. We trained nearly 220 IHSS staff—physicians, social workers, and pharmacists—on values clarification, gender-based violence protocols, and evidence-based EC counseling. We also reached over 1,000 people—including students, adolescents, migrants, and healthcare professionals—with information on EC through information fairs in collaboration with IHSS, Ciudad Mujer, UNFPA, We Lead, and others.

We made a significant donation of 10,000 EC pills to the Ministry of Health and began public sector training in Santa Rosa de Copan and San Pedro Sula, with additional rollouts planned in eight departments across Honduras in 2025. Our EC training module is also available to grassroots organizations supporting women with disabilities, adolescents, migrants, and Indigenous communities, for whom we’ve delivered targeted trainings to nearly 200 people.
Together, these efforts ensure that EC is not only legal, but available, understood, and accessible to all who need it.

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