Projects
Optio has worked for a decade to advance the reproductive rights of women and girls in Central America. Never once did we think that we would have to turn our attention to the United States of America, a country thought of by many as a bastion of freedom and personal...
Optio is working closely with Associación PASMO to bring together and strengthen girls’ clubs across Honduras.
This year, Optio has been working closely with our local partners in Guatemala and El Salvador to create a specialized policy lab, which will develop new approaches to liberalize restrictive reproductive health policies in Central America.
Over the past 5 months, Optio has been working with GE-PAE and OASIS to assess the regulatory landscape and document the availability and use of emergency contraception commodities.
On November 28th, the pro-choice candidate Xiomara Castro became the first female president-elect in Honduras. Since the start of her campaign, Castro has been committed to fervently defending the rights of women and girls in all fields of society, by lifting them out of poverty, guaranteeing their sexual and reproductive rights, reducing gender based violence, removing the ban on emergency contraception and decriminalizing abortion for three indications.
Somos Muchas, Optio’s partner and a national platform working to advance reproductive rights in Honduras, has sent out an international alert, asking Human Rights Organizations to speak out against a reproductive rights hate speech campaign that was launched this month by the National Party of Honduras. Optio has signed onto the alert and is doing everything in its power to prevent this campaign from gaining traction.
On April 13, 2021, Somos Muchas and Optio, together with 42 other organizations, filed a Constitutional Claim against the State of Honduras to decriminalize abortion when a mother’s life is at risk, in cases of sexual violence, and when a fetus is nonviable.
In July, Optio brought together 18 leaders of t reproductive health networks in an effort to improve their safety and expand on their skills and knowledge. During the week-long training, the reproductive rights defenders worked with experts in the region to: 1) share histories of advocacy from each Central America country, 2) develop protocols for helping women access vital reproductive health medicines and technologies in restrictive contexts, 3) establish cyber and mobile security standards, 4) and learn how to use portable ultrasounds to diagnose obstetric emergencies.
On April 13, 2021, Somos Muchas and Optio, together with 42 other organizations, filed a Constitutional Claim against the State of Honduras to decriminalize abortion when a mother’s life is at risk, in cases of sexual violence, and when a fetus is nonviable.
On May 7th, 11 years after being prosecuted, a Criminal Court in Honduras found Victoria* “not guilty” of the criminal abortion charges made against her. Optio’s legal team and Somos Muchas, our local Honduran partner, have been representing Victoria pro bono for the past three years. This legal decision was a victory for both Victoria and for our ongoing fight to liberalize the Honduran law that prohibits abortion even if the mother’s life is in danger.
Optio distributed reproductive health and hygiene kits to 5,000 women and adolescent girls living in shelters and informal camps in Cortés, Yoro y Santa Bárbara, Honduras. These women and girls were victims of hurricanes Iota and Eta, two category 4 hurricanes that ravaged the country in November 2020 and left 128,00 Hondurans stranded in shelters and informal camps.
Optio trained informal abortion pill vendors in Honduras and Guatemala on how to provide their clients with accurate information about how to use the medicine safely via a safe abortion app, built by Hesperian.
Over the last decade, more than 900 women have died of maternal causes in Honduras. Optio’s Siempre Vivas campaign aims to support the families of these women and ensure that their deaths become more than statistics.
January of 2020, Optio transitioned from being a program under the OASIS Initiative to an independent organization. We have since expanded our mission, added two new programs, and broadened the scope of our sexual and reproductive rights work to include both women and girls.