Fertility control policy, social policy and population policy in an industrialized country
Jaffe, F.S.
Family Planning Perspectives 6(3): 164-169
1974
ISSN/ISBN: 0014-7354 PMID: 4463010 DOI: 10.2307/2134129Document Number: 362020
The recent history of political and social policies of fertility control in the United States is recounted. Surveys in 1941, 1955, and 1960 showed that contraception was widespread, but the poor tended to be less successful because they used less effective methods and initiated contraception later. Contraception was first mentioned in public press in 1955, first prescribed in municipal hospitals in 1958, first provided in Foreign Assistance in 1963. Some states repealed restrictive laws ag ainst disseminating contraceptive information in 1965. The Supreme Court ruled that married couples are free to use contraception in 1965, extended this right to unmarried in 1972, and in 1973 overturned state abortion restrictions for first trimester. Funds were allocated by Congress for family planning under the Economic Opportunity, Social Security, Foreign Assistance and Population Research Acts. Within the U.S. 3.5-4 million poor and marginally poor women have benefited by services in over 3000 clinics. The author calculated that expenditures for family planning rose from .02% in 1968 to .14% in 1972 of all U.S. social welfare expenditures. Since 1972, the administration has not expanded services, so that rural poor and adolescents remain without contraception. Thus experience shows that efforts to reduce fertility complement other social and economic welfare programs. The polar views that only compulsory population control, or only economic assistance without providing family planning, will solve the population problem are refuted by this analysis.