Cuban day-care facilities to get makeover.

Jose Luis Rodriguez, Cuba's minister of economy and planning, has announced a program to overhaul and expand the country's day-care facilities as part of measures to revive Cuba's population--which has stagnated at around 11.2 million.

Speaking to participants at a workshop sponsored by the National Statistics Office (ONE), Rodriguez said that day-care capacities have increased by 9,300 spaces for the coming school year and will continue to rise in coming years.

About 53% of Cuban mothers have fulltime jobs, and to keep working they have to look for relatives or paid private childcare services to tend to their children.

In 2007, there were 81,914 deaths, compared to 112,472 live births. Mothers can take one year of maternity leave, but most do not find a place in state-run daycare centers when that period is over.

In somewhat related news, a May 19 article in the Communist daily Granma for the first time acknowledges the dangers of surgical abortion as a means of promoting the spread of contraceptives.

The newspaper reported that "60% of women who are infertile have previously undergone at least one abortion."

It said that even in optimal medical conditions, abortions can lead to serious problems, such as infections, bleeding and perforation of the uterus.

Granma, quoting unnamed sources, said top Cuban officials were worried about the high number of abortions, although "the main objective of Cuba's family planning policies is to diminish this practice ... and to address the health problems it causes."

The government will soon offer the abortifacient drug Misoprostol in 96 hospitals in Cuba. Even so, efforts thus far have not led to a drop in the number of abortions in Cuba, 80% of which are drug-induced.