Challenging the Total Ban on Abortion in Honduras Through A Constitutional Claim

In January 2021, Honduran lawmakers changed the Constitution to completely prohibit abortions under any circumstance.

THE NEED:

The risk of unsafe abortion is highest in countries with restrictive abortion laws, where women are more likely to use clandestine, often unsafe methods to terminate a pregnancy, and to avoid seeking help in case of an emergency. Honduras has one of the most restrictive laws in the world, prohibiting abortion even if it’s needed to save the life of the mother. Consequently, many of the abortions that take place in this region are unsafe, accounting for at least 10% of maternal deaths (Guttmacher, 2016). We believe that the national courts in Honduras have an obligation to make court decisions that reflect women’s right to health as stated by international treaties and human rights protocols that Honduras has ratified.

OUR APPROACH:

In an effort to liberalize the current abortion law, we are supporting Somos Muchas, a network of local organizations and activists, to file a constitutional claim against the State of Honduras. The strategies we are using to generate evidence for this claim include: 1) Analyzing known cases of women who have died of abortion-related causes between the years 2009 and 2020. 2) Working with 6 families of women who died of maternal causes but would have been saved if abortion was available to them. 3) Support a campaign to change how people think about abortion.