Case at United Nations Human Rights Committee Seeks to Ensure Access to Abortion in Honduras
After becoming pregnant as a result of rape, an indigenous woman and human rights defender was denied emergency contraception and abortion care and was forced to give birth against her will.
The Center for Reproductive Rights and the Centro de Derechos de Mujeres (CDM) are challenging Honduras’s total abortion ban in a case presented before the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Committee. The case involves Fausia, an indigenous Honduran woman and human rights defender of the Nahua People, who survived sexual violence and was forced to give birth after being denied emergency contraception and abortion care due to the country’s total ban on abortion.
The case—which marks the first time Honduras has been brought before the UN for its total abortion ban—argues that Honduras violated Fausia’s human rights by imposing pregnancy and forced motherhood on her and seeks justice on her behalf.
The case aims to secure a directive from the UN Human Rights Committee mandating the Honduran State to amend its legislative framework, which unconditionally prohibits the voluntary termination of pregnancy. Honduras’s abortion prohibition was reinforced with a constitutional amendment approved in 2021, and abortion is still totally prohibited.
“Fausia’s case stands as a prime example of the numerous human rights violations that arise from the criminalization of an essential health service. The criminalization of abortion affects all people who may need an abortion, particularly those in vulnerable situations, such as survivors of sexual violence,” said Carmen Cecilia Martínez, the Center’s Associate Director of Legal Strategies for Latin America and the Caribbean, shown left at an April 10 press conference. “Through litigation, we seek justice for Fausia and to prevent incidents like those she faced from recurring. States must ensure reproductive autonomy of all.”
About the UN Human Rights Committee
The United Nations Human Rights Committee comprises independent experts tasked with overseeing the implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) by its ratifying member states, including Honduras.
The Committee issues judgments based on cases brought forth by individuals or organizations who have been victims of human rights violations by a state party to the ICCPR.
Honduras’s Policies of Forced Pregnancy and Motherhood Violated Fausia’s Human Rights
Fausia was attacked by two men and raped by one of them as retaliation for her work defending her territory. As a result, she became pregnant, causing her serious physical and mental suffering. At that time in Honduras, the emergency contraception pill (ECP), which could have prevented her pregnancy, was prohibited.
She did not want to continue with her pregnancy, but when she went to the hospital, instead of receiving comprehensive care, the medical staff intimidated her and threatened to report her if she had an abortion, since it was prohibited. As a result, Fausia had to remain pregnant against her will and to face forced motherhood.
Among the case’s many arguments are that:
- Honduras’ regressive policies on sexual and reproductive health constitute clear violations of the fundamental rights of women and girls, including their rights to life, health, privacy, autonomy, and bodily integrity, as well as to live a life free from discrimination, torture, violence, and persecution.
- These devastating human rights violations perpetuate cycles of poverty that affect women and their families.
- Honduras’s total abortion ban is discriminatory since it only impacts individuals with reproductive capacity and also reinforces gender stereotypes about women, including motherhood as an obligation and that women are incapable of making decisions about their bodies.
- The Honduran State must guarantee access to abortion under safe conditions and to end the criminalization of voluntary pregnancy termination.
- It is essential for the State to provide assurances of access to ECP, especially for survivors of sexual violence; take measures to protect medical professional confidentiality; and implement protocols that prevent gender stereotypes from affecting survivors of sexual violence seeking healthcare or legal assistance.
- To comply with its international human rights obligations, Honduras must modify its legal framework that criminalizes abortion and instead must regulate it as a human right and an essential health service.
“The absolute criminalization of abortion and its prohibition in the Constitution do not prevent abortions from happening, but rather push women to seek them in secrecy and under unsafe conditions,” stated Regina Fonseca from CDM. “We have also documented cases of women resorting to suicide when they see no other way out of an unwanted pregnancy, or as happened with Fausia, suffering significant psychological and physical harm due to forced motherhood.”
Each day in Honduras, three girls under the age of 14 are compelled to sustain pregnancies resulting from rape and to become mothers.
—Honduras Ministry of Health (2022)
Forced Motherhood in Honduras
According to the Honduras Ministry of Health (2022), every day, three girls under the age of 14 are compelled to sustain pregnancies resulting from rape and to become mothers. The lack of access to ECP and the criminalization of abortion impact their rights to life, health, integrity, equality, and non-discrimination and contravene the recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO), which explicitly advised the decriminalization of abortion and its regulation within the realm of public health in its abortion care guidelines published in 2022.
This case is supported by the Human Rights Legal Team, the Justice for the Peoples Law Firm, and the National Network of Women Human Rights Defenders in Honduras.
The Centro de Derechos de la Mujer (CDM) is a Honduran organization that advocates for women’s human rights. It operates autonomously, with a feminist and critical approach, striving to address the rights of women.
Read more.
- Press release (English): Honduras has been brought to the United Nations Human Rights Committee for its ban on abortion, 04.10.24
- Press release (Spanish): Honduras fue denunciado ante el Comité de Derechos Humanos de la ONU por la prohibición absoluta del aborto vigente en el país, 04.10.24
- Global Abortion Trends: In the last 30 years, more than 60 countries have liberalized their abortion laws to expand access, including some in the Latin American region such as Mexico, Colombia, and Argentina. Only four countries—including Honduras and the United States—have removed legal grounds for abortion. Read more.