Paucity of family planning
Hawkins, C.
International Health News 9(4): 3; 10
1988
ISSN/ISBN: 0731-7220 PMID: 12179876 Document Number: 359226
A wall chart compiled by the Population Crisis Committee of Washington D.C. called "World Access to Birth Control" is described. The chart compares developing countries and developed countries with respect to need of effective contraception, using data from the World Fertility Surveys. Up to 250 million women need contraception; a substantial percentage want no more children, over half in several large countries. The chart ranks the United Kingdom as 1st in providing family planning services, information, education and advertising. All of the developed countries were considered good except Russia and Romania, although some had deficiencies, such as Japan for lacking sterilization services. The U.S. ranked 7th, failing to provide women the full range of contraceptive methods, to provide adequate sex education and services to adolescents, and to publish information and adequate advertising about birth control. The USSR was placed 14th on the list of 15 because of poor quality and erratic supplies. Among the developing countries, Libya, Kampuchea and Laos were cited as having no services whatsoever. In contrast, several Asian national family planning programs, notably China, Taiwan, Singapore, South Korea and Hong Kong, had such excellent programs that fertility had declined over 30% in 15 years. In China, fertility has fallen 50% in that time.