Honduras Bans Morning-After Pill

And now, some non-coup bad news from Honduras:

A new law has taken effect in Honduras prohibiting the consumption and marketing of the morning-after pill in the Central American country.

The law was passed by the Honduran Congress at the beginning of the year with backing from the Medical College of Honduras, which pointed out that the pill has an abortifacient effect making it unconstitutional.

The Honduran Congress argued that the drug would “gravely endanger the health of the Honduran population, especially women who are able to get pregnant.”

Though the law's origin pre-dates the Micheletti regime, this is still some pretty bad timing. Taking away reproductive rights from women is always a major step backward, and especially in a law like this, when women's options on birth control are already limited (and abortion is illegal).

Perhaps the worst moment comes at the end of the brief article, when the Latin American director of the Population Research Institute and general chauvinist pig Carlos Polo commented that the law is helping Hondurans in "freeing ourselves from an inoperative and costly method that has grave adverse effects for women." Yes - those evil feminists are out to destroy women's bodies through vague "grave adverse effects" and repress them with things like freedom of choice in reproductive rights. Classy.