Family planning and fertility in South Africa under apartheid
Norling, J.
European Review of Economic History 23(3): 365-395
2019
ISSN/ISBN: 1361-4916 PMID: 31942162 DOI: 10.1093/ereh/hey016Document Number: 288780
During the apartheid era, all South Africans were formally classified as white, African, colored, or Asian. Starting in 1970, the government directly provided free family planning services to residents of townships and white-owned farms. Relative to African residents of other regions of the country, the share of African women that gave birth in these townships and white-owned farms declined by nearly one-third during the 1970s. Deferral of childbearing into the 1980s partially explains the decline, but lifetime fertility fell by one child per woman.