Abortion and the Cuban Economy
Posted on | August 8, 2012 by Susan Yoshihara, Ph.D. |
Abortion is free in Cuba and it’s estimated that half of the children conceived on that island nation are killed before birth. The fertility rate is 1.5 children per woman, well below replacement level. Improved health care means Cubans are living longer. With grown children leaving for the U.S. to find work, Cuba’s elderly increasingly depend on government support.
By 2021, the government projects that more Cubans will be leaving the workforce than entering. When asked what could be done about the birth rate, the economic czar, Marino Murillo, said the government was studying measures for next year but gave no details. Instead, Cuba seems to be counting on wooing immigrants. But there too the prospects are uncertain at best.
