By Matthew Cullinan Hoffman, Latin America Correspondent
TEGUCIGALPA, May 22, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Honduran President Manuel Zelaya has vetoed a law that would have outlawed the sale of abortifacient “emergency contraception” in the country.
However, Marta Lorena Casco, a prominent pro-life legislator in the Honduran Congress, says that the there are a sufficient number of votes in the legislature to override the veto.
Responding to the oft-repeated claim that “emergency contraception” and the “morning after pill” do not cause abortions, Casco said that “we are talking about an abortifacient and we all know it. We’re going to override the presidential veto when the law returns to the Congress.”
The “morning after pill,” like the ordinary contraceptive pill, can cause abortions by preventing a newly-conceived embryo from attaching to the uterine wall, causing it to die of starvation. The pill is taken within 72 hours of sexual intercourse, ostensibly to prevent pregnancy.
Pro-abortion groups often claim that the “morning after pill” doesn’t cause abortions. However, they do this by using a definition of pregnancy that requires the embryo to be attached to the uterine wall, instead of defining it as beginning at conception.
The president’s private secretary told Reuters that the president had vetoed the legislation because of “international agreements regarding established individual freedoms.” Pro-abortion organizations often use international treaty language to argue for a “right” to abortion, even when abortion is not mentioned in the particular treaties.