Ogilvy: Grupo Estratégico PAE’s Morning After Island

Honduras is the only Latin American country to ban the morning after pill: any woman found taking it faces up to six years in prison. Since the ban was introduced in 2009, 350,000 underage Honduran girls have given birth.

Women’s rights advocates Grupo Estratégico PAE and Ogilvy Honduras came together to create Morning After Island, a floating safe space in international waters outside Honduran jurisdiction where women could access the pill without fear of prosecution.

As weekly boat trips took women to the island, Ogilvy created a video campaign encouraging people to sign a petition for change. It gained more than 800,000 signatures in less than six months. Hundreds of media outlets across 14 countries covered it and, eventually, Honduran President Xiomara Castro invited Grupo Estratégico to a public meeting. Castro called on congress to draft legislation defending the sexual, reproductive and civil rights of three million Honduran women. This proposal was eventually converted into law, allowing for the legal use of the pill for the first time in 13 years.