The legislature of Honduras has voted to ban the morning-after pill. Members of Honduras’s Congress argued that the morning-after pill is abortifacient and therefore violates Honduras’s constitutional ban on abortion. The measure passed bans the purchase, sale, use and distribution of the morning-after pill. Martha Lorena Alvarado de Casco (pictured), a Liberal party representative and an Honduran pro-life leader, sponsored the ban.SPUC has fought very hard for many years to have the truth about the morning-after pill recognised. In the year 2000 SPUC mounted a legal challenge in the English high court against the supply of the morning-after pill without prescription. We explained that the morning-after pill manufacturers say that it can affect the lining of the womb so that embryos can't implant. (It's important to note that other contraceptive drugs and devices also cause early abortions.) This may be a death sentence for young human lives.
Mr Justice Munby, the judge in the case, ruled against SPUC, deciding that a mother is not pregnant until the embryo implants in her womb. Although an embryonic child is present before implantation, the judge said, the mother is not legally pregnant. Justice Munby’s decision has been strongly challenged in the academic press and elsewhere, specifically by Fleming, Pike & Neville and by John Keown. In summary, the overwhelming scientific and legal evidence makes clear that:
- conception is to be equated with fertilisation;
- a woman is pregnant from fertilisation/conception onwards;
- miscarriage, being synonymous with abortion, refers to loss of the preimplantation embryo, potentially caused by the morning after pill.
I spoke on the 'phone this week to Martha de Casco. She said that the measure banning the promotion and selling of the morning after pill now goes to the President of the Honduras who will either ratify or veto it. If it's vetoed, it will go back to the Congress who can overturn the veto with a three-fourths majority. It's therefore vital to write to the President of the National Congress to congratulate the Congress on their vote and calling on Congress-men and -women to stand firm. Please write to:
Roberto Micheletti Bain
Presidente Congreso Nacional de Honduras
Palacio Legislativo
Tegucigalpa, D.C.
Honduras
Email: rmicheletti@congreso.gob.hn
