Venezuela: Maduro urges women to have ‘six children’

By Laura Gamba

BOGOTA, Colombia (AA) - Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro urged women to have a lot of children in a televised event promoting a national women's health care plan.

"Start giving birth now, start giving birth. All women should have six children so the country grows," Maduro said Tuesday while he complimented a woman who has six children. The National Plan for Humanized Childbirth and Breastfeeding would provide heath care to every pregnant and breastfeeding woman. "Every woman should have six children for the good of the country.”

Maduro's words provoked controversy in Venezuela where pregnant women are often left unprotected without access to the public health system, forcing thousands to leave Venezuela for other countries every day seeking prenatal care and to protect the lives of their unborn children.

In fact, more than 24,000 children have been born to Venezuelan parents in Colombia since 2015.

Between 2015 and 2016, maternal deaths grew 65% and child mortality, after six days of from birth, increased 53%, according to 2016 government data, the last year statistics are available.

Chronic malnutrition is on the rise as well. The UN children's agency, UNICEF, says between 2013 and 2018, 13% of Venezuelan children were malnourished.

"Hospitals are not functioning, vaccines are scarce, women cannot breastfeed because they are malnourished or buy baby formula because it is unaffordable, and the country faces forced migration due to the humanitarian emergency,” Manuela Bolivar, a member of the opposition-controlled National Assembly wrote on Twitter.

Maduro made another comment which caused controversy when he said: "Women were made to give birth.”