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The lack of access to reproductive rights in Latin America can have unanticipated consequences. The Zika virus outbreak, for example, highlights the need for reproductive rights. So does the alarming number of triplets, quadruplets, and quintuplets born as a result of Costa Rica’s 16-year ban on in vitro fertilization (IVF).
Last year on May 17, 34-year old Silvia Villegas gave birth to Costa Rica’s first sextuplets. National jubilation was followed soon after by tragedy, as four of the babies died within the first month, and a fifth died four months later. Multiple births are dangerous. Ms. Villegas suffered a heart attack two months after the delivery, and the babies had been born close to the margin of viability at 27 weeks gestation. Even when pre-term infants survive, they often suffer breathing and heart trouble, brain hemorrhage, vision problems, and a host of long-term complications including cerebral palsy and learning disabilities.
The sextuplets were the culmination of a rise in multiple births recorded in Costa Rica beginning in the mid-2000s. From 1997-2005, just ten sets of quadruplets...