Honduras strengthens its abortion ban
Women in the streets of Tegucigalpa for International Women's Day on March 9, 2020. AFP - ORLANDO SIERRA
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The Parliament of Honduras, with a conservative majority, approved Thursday, January 21 a constitutional reform which toughens the ban on abortion.
Honduran legislation was, however, already one of the strictest in the world.
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Honduras is one of the few countries that prohibits abortion in cases of rape or incest, serious malformation of the fetus and even when the life of the mother is in danger.
Article 67 of the revised Constitution now provides that any termination of pregnancy "
by the mother or by a third party
" is "
prohibited and illegal
", but above all that this clause "
can only be reformed by a majority of three quarters of the members. of Parliament
”.
"
What they did was set this article in stone because we will never be able to reform it if it takes 96 votes
", out of the 128 in Parliament, reacted opposition MP Doris Gutierrez.
Women's rights groups have mobilized in recent weeks to demand that parliament allow abortion in certain cases, such as rape.
The ruling party presents this reform as a shield to stop the wave of constitutional reforms in Latin American countries in favor of the legalization of abortion, as in Argentina.
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Read also: Argentina: Congress adopts the law legalizing abortion
For the opposition it is above all a matter of distracting public opinion while President Juan Orlando Hernandez is in difficulty.
His brother was convicted in the United States of
drug trafficking
and he is awaiting his sentence while the American justice accuses the Honduran president of complicity.
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