Background

In 2009, Honduras became the only country in Latin America with a blanket ban on the morning-after pill.

For more than 10 years, the women’s advocacy group GE PAE has led the fight to repeal the ban, using every play in the book: street protests, media campaigns, direct lobbying. For their efforts, they have been vilified by mass media; called murderers by conservative religious leaders; and worst of all, shut out of policy discussions.

That’s why they took matters into their own hands. Denied rights on land, they took to the sea, to show just how far women must go to exercise their basic human rights.

Idea

Build a platform in international waters, outside of Honduran jurisdiction, and organize weekly trips and supplies to provide hundreds of women in need with the pill, safe from prosecution. Then film the journeys and create short-form videos with a call to action: sign our petition to demand a repeal of the ban.

The resulting massive international coverage finally earned GE PAE what they’d been denied for more than a decade: a seat at the table. President Xiomara Castro invited the group to a formal meeting, where they secured her commitment to draft legislation that protected Honduran women’s sexual and reproductive rights.