ニューヨーク・タイムズのインスタグラム(nytimes) - 2月26日 07時46分

In Venezuela, affordable contraception has disappeared, and many women have lost control of their lives as a result.

The moment Johanna Guzmán (first photo) discovered she was going to have her sixth child, she began to sob, crushed by the idea of bringing another life into a nation in such decay.

Already, she was cooking meager dinners over a wood fire, washing clothes without soap, teaching lessons without paper. Already, she was stalked by a fear that she could not feed them all.

“I felt like I was drowning,” said Guzmán, 35.

The situation is a major departure from what Venezuela’s government once promised its women and girls. Hugo Chávez, the father of the country’s socialist-inspired revolution, had declared that his government would give people the right to “decide freely” how many children they wished to have; and birth control had been subsidized and widely available. But under Chávez’s successor, President Nicolás Maduro, the government’s grip on the country has hardened into authoritarian rule, and Venezuelans now face a health system so broken that it can no longer reliably provide basic contraception.

Around Caracas, the capital, a pack of three condoms costs $4.40 — nearly three times Venezuela’s monthly minimum wage of $1.50. Birth control pills cost more than twice as much, roughly $11 a month, while an IUD, or intrauterine device, can cost more than $40 — and that does not include a doctor’s fee to have the device put in.

With the cost of contraception so far out of reach, women are increasingly resorting to abortions, which are illegal and, in the worst cases, can cost them their lives.

Some couples have rationed or abstained from sex. Others have tried to plan around a woman’s menstrual cycle. But it hasn’t always worked. And not everyone has a choice.

As the crisis has sharpened, many women say that abuse has, too, making it difficult for them to say no to a partner or to leave a relationship.

Tap the link in our bio to read about the deeply personal drama playing out inside millions of homes as Venezuela enters its eighth year of economic crisis. Photos by @meridithkohut.

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