From the time reporters Lou Marillier and Daisy Squires began looking into a potential women’s health crisis in Venezuela, the price of birth control skyrocketed from three months’ worth of pay to 10 months’ worth of a woman’s salary.
“We had to show what they were fighting against,” says Marillier. “[It] is a violent decision to get sterilized or get an abortion in a country where it's so valued to have a child. We had to show the risk as well.”
They also included a visceral 10-minute documentary that shows some of the women telling their stories firsthand.
The majority Catholic country outlaws abortions, often leaving women to seek clandestine abortions that could lead to further complications or death. It is uncommon for a man to consent to sterilization, even though it is a less dangerous and less invasive surgery.
“It’s totally left to them [women] to raise, carry or not carry children,” says Squires. “If your husband got a vasectomy, it was like, ‘Oh, no, what will he tell his friends?’”
The two reporters found subjects for the piece relatively easy, with many of the women forthcoming about their experiences.
The stories they shared were ones of desperation, survival and anger. A 21-year-old woman named Darling opted to be permanently sterilized to avoid bringing any more children into Venezuela’s harsh realities.
Her sister, Jennifer, found she could not feed her baby because her breast could not produce milk, and she could not afford formula.
Another woman, her face hidden from the reporters’ camera, completes an illegal abortion just offscreen.
One mother, Natalie, recalls losing her young son because she couldn’t afford his medicine. She cries during much of her interview.
“It was quite risky for them to speak to foreign reporters,” says Marillier. “I think they were very brave.”
“The women were so pragmatic about how they approached everything,” says Squires.
“It’s the resilience you build when you’ve got to survive and move on. I was amazed by Darling, the 21-year-old, whose family helped her to invest in taking out her Fallopian tubes. ... But that is a long-term investment, making sure there are no more mouths to feed.”
Venezuela’s collapsing economy extends to the teenage girls who are asking to be sterilized, the women risking their lives to terminate pregnancies and the parents who are watching their children die before they do.
The people in the crosshairs of scarcity, culture and public policy – like Darling, Jennifer and Natalie – are paying the price that doesn’t always make the news.
