ABSTRACT
The period since the Second World War has shown an amazing increase in availability of legal abortion, but it has also seen a large increase in the size of the world population. Table 9.1 shows the increase for the thirty years 1950–80. These figures indicate that the world’s population has been growing by about 75 million a year. From 1950–5 the annual increment was about 46 million. The highest rates of growth were in Latin America, Africa and Asia, and the lowest rates in Europe. If these trends continued some countries in Africa and Asia would between 1980 and the year 2000 have twice as many people to feed, house and care for. Furthermore, although many women have gained the right to choose how many children they want, there are still great problems for others. In 1980 a press release from the World Fertility Survey, the largest social science research project ever undertaken, gave preliminary reports from fifteen Third World countries (Francome, 1980a). It showed that half the married women of reproductive age did not want any more children, yet about half these women were not using effective methods of family planning. The main reasons for this were lack of knowledge and the fact that birth control methods were not available.
