To control the rapidly spreading Zika virus, the government of El Salvador recently asked its citizens to avoid getting pregnant from now until 2018, according to Prof. Jennifer Dabbs Sciubba. She has published an article on the News Security Beat website about the potential consequences—both demographic and economic—of this extreme step.
She writes, “The mosquito-borne virus is suspected to cause a condition called microcephaly, in which fetal brain development is stunted when a pregnant woman becomes infected. While other states in Latin America have warned women of the dangers of getting pregnant while the virus is uncontrolled, El Salvador has taken the strongest stance against pregnancy.”
Sciubba is an assistant professor of international studies at Rhodes and a non-resident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council in Washington, DC. In her article, she asks “How much can the government really control fertility, and can they do so without resorting to coercion?” Read more.