Honduras Congress Rules Vetoed Teen Pregnancy and Sex-Ed Law Never Became Law
Evangelical pastors, parents and other religious groups had pressed for the 2023 veto. Lawmakers now say the decree's publication this year in the official gazette gave it no legal force.
Learn more ›TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras —
Honduras' National Congress declared on Wednesday, Oct. 28, that a 2023 law on sex education and preventing teen pregnancy never completed the constitutional process to become law, El Heraldo reported. The measure, Legislative Decree No. 8-2023, was the Comprehensive Education Law for the Prevention of Adolescent Pregnancy in Honduras.
Congress first approved the decree on March 8, 2023. The executive branch vetoed it later that year, and lawmakers never voted to override the veto. Congress said the Constitution's Article 216 requires at least 86 deputies to override a presidential veto, and that vote never took place.
The dispute flared again this month when it was confirmed that the decree had been printed in La Gaceta, the official gazette, in edition No. 37,050, dated Jan. 22, 2026. In Wednesday's ruling, Congress said that publication could not make up for the missing ratification and gave the decree no legal force.
Congress ordered its secretariat and the national printing company, ENAG, to gather and certify the full record of how the decree was handled and published and send it to the Public Ministry, which will decide whether to open an investigation. ENAG general manager Juan Manuel Gálvez told El Heraldo that the document arrived with all the required signatures but without the usual transmittal letter from the presidential office. Earlier this week Congress President Tomás Zambrano said any official who acted outside the law would be held responsible.
The bill was introduced by Deputy Scherly Arriaga of the Libre party. In 2023, evangelical and Catholic leaders, parents' groups and the Episcopal Conference opposed it, saying it promoted gender ideology and conflicted with traditional family values. Supporters said the country needed a law to address teen pregnancy, which the United Nations says accounts for about one in four pregnancies in Honduras.
See where this is ›After then-President Xiomara Castro vetoed the bill in 2023, Gerardo Irías, president of the Tegucigalpa Pastors Association, credited God for the outcome, according to the Honduran outlet Tunota. “We know that, if it had not been for our Heavenly Father, this law would not have been vetoed,” he said.
Wednesday's ruling deals only with how the law was made, El Heraldo reported, and leaves any other questions to the proper authorities.
