Birth control

China announced the end of its hugely controversial one-child policy after decades of strict, sometimes brutal enforcement. All couples will now be allowed two children.

Gabriel González, the youngest of Costa Rica’s first set of sextuplets, who were born premature in May, died Saturday night in San José’s Hospital de la Mujer.

Costa Rica will reach a population of 5 million by 2018, according to estimates from the National Statistics and Census Institute (INEC). INEC and Casa Presidencial warned that there are some growing pains ahead for the country as it approaches.

New guidelines proposed by the Human Fertility Commission have been approved to increase the chances of having a single baby rather than multiples through artificial insemination to 90 percent.

The leader of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics said he defends the Church's teaching against artificial contraception but claimed that didn't mean "Christians should have children one after the other."

Evangelical lawmakers promised to block the bill with "5,000 motions."

The sexual assault victim said that the Monteverde Institute mishandled her case in that its management was more concerned with legal waivers and assigning blame than her emotional well-being.

Last week, ruling party presidential candidate Johnny Araya tried to claim the mantle of family values, accusing opposition candidate Luis Guillermo Solís of having a different position than that of his own Citizen Action Party. While the abortion question could prove combustible in Costa Rica, Araya is not well positioned to strike the match.

In staging yet another protest, Costa Rica's Catholic Church aims to be heard during campaign season.

Doctors at a public hospital in Costa Rica refused to perform a therapeutic abortion last November, saying the woman's life was not at risk.