Cuba - the country with the oldest population and highest legal abortion rate in all of Latin America - is now encouraging young couples to have children and reverse what is increasingly viewed as the communist country's dire demographic situation.
Birth control, the means by which one uses contraception and fertility control to prevent pregnancy and manage family planning, is essential to a woman's economic security. That said, institutional, language, cultural and payment barriers can act as a challenge, perpetuating a belief that one lacks ownership over one's own wealth and body.
According to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center, first-time mothers are older than they were four decades ago; in 2012, there were more than nine times as many first births to mothers 35 and older than there were in the 1970s. The report also indicated that over the past two decades first birth rates rose for older women of all races and Hispanic origins. The report failed to outline the reasons behind the trend, though it may have a great deal to do with economics.
