Takeaways from AP’s report on secretive networks helping women circumvent Honduras’ abortion ban

By MARÍA VERZA and GINNETTE RIQUELME
Associated Pres

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) — Honduras has one of the world’s strictest abortion bans, with a constitutional prohibition on terminating pregnancy in all cases. But across the country, women are terminating pregnancies with the help of clandestine networks seeking to make the procedure as safe as possible. Activists in the networks use code words, aliases, encrypted messages, burner phones and pills smuggled across borders to keep their activities under the radar. Most don’t know each other, or any specifics beyond their role in the chain that ultimately provides information and the abortion pills endorsed by the World Health Organization. Many women in the networks are vocal activists on other issues, but they feel most afraid of speaking out on abortion because of the ban and social and religious opposition.