ABSTRACT
This chapter considers women’s wish to control the size of their family and constraints on their ability to control family size, and discusses the benefits of family planning for women. “Women realize better than anybody else what an accelerated population growth rate means,” says Makwavarara, and certainly many Third World women do appreciate the problem. Increasingly, women in the South are acknowledging the heavy toll that continued childbirth and child-rearing exacts on their own and their children’s health. Induced abortions which follow unwanted pregnancies — most taking place illegally and in unsanitary conditions — expose women to severe physical risks, and can permanently damage their mental health. The International Conference on Population in Mexico in 1984 emphasized that it remains the free decision of couples themselves how many children they raise. Women’s development, education and emancipation are key factors in increasing the acceptance of family planning.
