Отбасылық жоспарлау және бала туу мәселелері

Planning when to have children

Family planning is the consideration of the number of children a person wishes to have, including the choice to have no children, and the age at which they wish to have them. Things that may play a role on family planning decisions include marital situation, career or work considerations, financial situations. If sexually active, family planning may involve the use of contraception (birth control) and other techniques to control the timing of reproduction. Other aspects of family planning aside from contraception include sex education, prevention and management of sexually transmitted infections, Family planning, as defined by the United Nations and the World Health Organization, encompasses services leading up to conception. Abortion is not typically recommended as a primary method of family planning. Family planning is sometimes used as a synonym or euphemism for access to and the use of contraception. However, it often involves methods and practices in addition to contraception. Additionally, many might wish to use contraception but are not necessarily planning a family (e. g., unmarried adolescents, young married couples delaying childbearing while building a career). Family planning has become a catch all phrase for much of the work undertaken in this realm. However, contemporary notions of family planning tend to place a woman and her childbearing decisions at the center of the discussion, as notions of women's empowerment and reproductive autonomy have gained traction in many parts of the world. It is usually applied to a female male couple who wish to limit the number of children they have or control pregnancy timing (also known as spacing children). Family planning has been shown to reduce teenage birth rates and birth rates for unmarried women.

When women can pursue additional education and paid employment, families can invest more in each child. Children with fewer siblings tend to stay in school longer than those with many siblings. Leaving school in order to have children has long term implications for the future of these girls, as well as the human capital of their families and communities. Family planning slows unsustainable population growth which drains resources from the environment, and national and regional development efforts.

Modern methods of family planning include birth control, assisted reproductive technology and family planning programs. In regard to the use of modern methods of contraception, The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) says, "Contraceptives prevent unintended pregnancies, reduce the number of abortions, and lower the incidence of death and disability related to complications of pregnancy and childbirth." UNFPA states, "If all women with an unmet need for contraceptives were able to use modern methods, an additional 24 million abortions (14 million of which would be unsafe), 6 million miscarriages, 70,000 maternal deaths and 500,000 infant deaths would be prevented." Adoption is another option used to build a family. There are seven steps that one must make towards adoption. One must decide to pursue an adoption, apply to adopt, complete an adoption home study, get approved to adopt, be matched with a child, receive an adoptive placement, and then legalize the adoption.

A number of contraceptive methods are available to prevent unwanted pregnancy. There are natural methods and various chemical based methods, each with particular advantages and disadvantages. Behavioral methods to avoid pregnancy that involve vaginal intercourse include the withdrawal and calendar based methods, which have little upfront cost and are readily available. Long acting reversible contraceptive methods, such as intrauterine device (IUD) and implant are highly effective and convenient, requiring little user action, but do come with risks. When cost of failure is included, IUDs and vasectomy are much less costly than other methods. In addition to providing birth control, male and/or female condoms protect against sexually transmitted infections (STI). Condoms may be used alone, or in addition to other methods, as backup or to prevent STIs. Surgical methods (tubal ligation, vasectomy) provide long term contraception for those who have completed their families.

When, for any reason, a woman is unable to conceive by natural means, she may seek assisted conception. It is recommended to the couple to ask for reproductive counseling after one year of trying to conceive, or after six months of trying if the woman is more than 35 years old, if she has irregular or infrequent menses, if she has a history of endometriosis or pelvic inflammatory disease, or if a problem related to the male is present. Some families or women seek assistance through surrogacy, in which a woman agrees to become pregnant and deliver a child for another couple or person (this is not allowed in all countries). There are two types of surrogacy: traditional and gestational. In traditional surrogacy, the surrogate uses her own eggs and carries the child for her intended parents. This procedure is done in a doctor's office through intrauterine insemination (IUI). This type of surrogacy obviously includes a genetic connection between the surrogate and the child. Legally, the surrogate will have to disclaim any interest in the child to complete the transfer to the intended parents. A gestational surrogacy occurs when the intended mother's or a donor egg is fertilized outside the body and then the embryos are transferred into the uterus. The woman who carries the child is often referred to as a gestational carrier. The legal steps to confirm parentage with the intended parents are generally easier than in a traditional because there is no genetic connection between child and carrier. Sperm donation is another form of assisted conception. It involves donated sperm being used to fertilise a woman's ova by artificial insemination (either by intracervical insemination or IUI) and less commonly by in vitro fertilization (IVF), but insemination may also be achieved by a donor having sexual intercourse with a woman for the purpose of achieving conception. This method is known as natural insemination (NI). Mapping of a woman's ovarian reserve, follicular dynamics and associated biomarkers can give an individual prognosis about future chances of pregnancy, facilitating an informed choice of when to have children.

Fertility awareness refers to a set of practices used to determine the fertile and infertile phases of a woman's menstrual cycle. These methods may be used to avoid pregnancy, to achieve pregnancy, or as a way to monitor gynecological health. Methods of identifying infertile days have been known since antiquity, but scientific knowledge gained during the past century has increased the number and variety of methods. Various methods can be used and the Symptothermal method has achieved success rates over 99% if used properly. These methods are used for various reasons: There are no drug related side effects, they are free to use and only have a small upfront cost, they work for both achieving and preventing pregnancy, and they may be used for religious reasons. (The Catholic Church promotes this as the only acceptable form of family planning, calling it Natural Family Planning.) Their disadvantages are that either abstinence or a backup contraception method is required on fertile days, typical use is often less effective than other methods, and they do not protect against sexually transmitted infection.

Recent research based on nationally representative surveys supports a strong association between family planning mass media campaigns and contraceptive use, even after controlling for social and demographic variables. The 1989 Kenya Demographic and Health Survey found half of the women who recalled hearing or seeing family planning messages in radio, print, and television consequently used contraception, compared with 14% who did not recall family planning messages in the media, even after age, residence and socioeconomic status were taken into account. The Health Education Division of the Ministry of Health conducted the Tanzanian Family Planning Communication Project from January 1991 through December 1994, a project funded by the U. S. Agency for International Development (USAID). In 2013, 160 out of 197 governments provided direct support for family planning. Twenty countries only provided indirect support through private sector or NGOs. Seventeen governments did not support family planning. Direct government support has continued to increase in developing countries from 82% in 1996 to 93% in 2013, but is declining in developed countries from 58% in 1976 to 45% in 2013. Ninety seven percent of Latin America and the Caribbean, 96% of Africa, and 94% of Oceania governments provided direct support for family planning. In Europe, only 45% of governments directly support family planning. Out of 172 countries with available data in 2012, 152 countries had implemented realistic measures to increase women's access to family planning methods from 2009 to 2014. This data included 95% of developing nations and 65% of developed nations. Social marketing employs marketing techniques to achieve behavioral change while making contraceptives available. By utilizing private providers, social marketing reduces geographic and socioeconomic disparities and reaches men and boys.

Historically, the capacity to control one's reproductive abilities has been unequally distributed across society. Long acting reversible contraception (LARCs), including intrauterine devices and progestin implants, and permanent sterilization have been implemented to limit reproduction in communities of color, the lower socioeconomic class, and among individuals with intellectual disabilities. Multiple studies have reported disproportionate recommendations of LARCs to individuals from marginalized communities compared to white, high income individuals. With the eugenics movement of the 20th century, 60,000 people were sterilized in 32 states across the US with state sanctioned sterilizations peaking in 1930 40's. More recently, unwanted sterilizations have been performed on over a thousand women in California prisons between 1997 and 2010. Protocols have been established to protect against unwanted permanent contraception through Medicaid Laws, but there has not been a widespread declaration by the Supreme Court ruling forced sterilization unconstitutional.

Compulsory or forced sterilization programs or government policy attempt to force people to undergo surgical sterilization without their freely given consent. People from marginalized communities are at most risk of forced sterilization. Forced sterilization has occurred in recent years in Eastern Europe (against Roma women), and in Peru (during the 1990s against indigenous women). China's one child policy was intended to limit the rise in population numbers, but in some situations involved forced sterilisation.

Rape can result in a pregnancy. Rape can occur in a variety of situations, including war rape, forced prostitution and marital rape. In Rwanda, the National Population Office has estimated that between 2,000 and 5,000 children were born as a result of sexual violence perpetrated during the genocide, but victims' groups gave a higher estimated number of over 10,000 children.

Some consider access to safe, voluntary family planning to be a human right and to be central to gender equality, women's empowerment and poverty reduction. Over the past 50 years, right based family planning has enabled the cycle of poverty to be broken resulting in millions of women and children's lives being saved. The UNFPA says that "Most of these women with an unmet need for contraceptives live in 69 of the poorest countries on earth." Since climate change is directly proportional to the number of humans, family planning has a significant impact on climate change. The research project Drawdown estimates that family planning is the seventh most efficient action against climate change (ahead of solar farms, nuclear power, afforestation and many other actions). In a 2021 paper for Sustainability Science, William J. Ripple, Christopher Wolf and Eileen Crist argue that population policies can both advance social justice, while at the same time mitigating the human impact on the climate and the earth system. They note that the richer half of the world's population is responsible for 90% of the emissions.

Having children produces a quality quantity trade off: parents need to decide how many children to have and how much to invest in the future of each child. The increasing marginal cost of quality (child outcome) with respect to quantity (number of children) creates a trade off between quantity and quality. The quantity quality trade off means that policies that raise benefits of investing in child quality will generate higher levels of human capital, and policies that lower the costs of having children may have unintended adverse consequences on long run economic growth. When deciding how many children, parents are influenced by their income level, perceived return to human capital investment, and cultural norms related to gender equality. Controlling birth rates allows families to raise the future earnings power of the next generation. Many empirical studies have tested the quantity quality trade off and either observed a negative correlation between family size and child quality or did not find a correlation. In order to become rich, resources must be re appropriated to increase income per person rather than supporting larger populations. As populations increase, governments must accommodate increasing investments in health and human capital and institutional reforms to address demographic divides. Reducing the cost of human capital can be implemented by subsidizing education, which raises the earning power of women and the opportunity cost of having children, consequently lowering fertility. By observing the distance to the nearest family planning center and the general education expenditure on each child, Dang and Rogers provide evidence that parents in Vietnam are making a child quality quantity trade off.

Currently, developed countries have experienced rising economic growth and falling fertility. As a result of the demographic transition that takes place when countries become rich, developed countries have an increasing proportion of retired people which raises the burden on the workforce population to support pensions and social programs. Encouraging higher fertility as a solution may risk reversing the benefits for increased child investment and female labor force participation have had on economic growth. Increasing high skill migration may be an effective way to increase the return to education leading to lower fertility and a greater supply of highly skilled individuals.]] 214 million women of reproductive age in developing countries who do not want to become pregnant are not using a modern contraceptive method. This could be a result of a limited choice of methods, limited access to contraception, fear of side effects, cultural or religious opposition, poor quality of available services, user or provider bias, or gender based barriers. In Africa, 24.2% of women of reproductive age do not have access to modern contraction. In Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean, the unmet need is 10–11%. Meeting the unmet need for contraception could prevent 104,000 maternal deaths per year, a 29% reduction of women dying from postpartum hemorrhage or unsafe abortions. According to the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs: Population Division, 64% of the world uses contraceptives, and 12% of the world population's need for contraceptives is unmet. In the least developed countries, 22% of the population do not have access to contraceptives, and 40% use contraceptives. The unmet need for modern contraceptives is very high in sub Saharan Africa, south Asia, and western Asia. Africa has the lowest rate of contraceptive use (33%) and highest rate of unmet need (22%). Northern America has the highest rate of contraceptive use (73%) and the lowest unmet need (7%). Latin America and the Caribbean follows closely behind with 73% contraceptive use and 11% unmet need. Europe and Asia are on par: Europe has a 69% contraceptive use rate and 10% unmet need, Asia has a 68% contraceptive use and 10% unmet need. Although unmet need is lower in Asia because of the large population in this region, the number of women with unmet need is 443 million, compared to 74 million in Europe Oceania has a 59% contraceptive use rate and 15% unmet need. When comparing the regions within these continents, Eastern Asia ranks the highest rate of contraceptive use (82%) and lowest unmet need (5%). Western Africa ranks the lowest rate of contraceptive use (17%). Middle Africa ranks the highest unmet need (26%). Unmet need is higher among poorer women; in Bolivia and Ethiopia unmet need is tripled and doubled among poor populations. However, in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Liberia the rates of unmet need are different by 1–2 percentage points. Only about 30% of all women use birth control, although over half of all African women would like to use birth control if it was available to them. The main problems that preventing access to and use of birth control are unavailability, poor health care services, spousal disapproval, religious concerns, and misinformation about the effects of birth control. A rapidly growing population coupled with an increase in preventable diseases means countries in Sub Saharan Africa face an increasingly younger population. Family planning has been practiced since the 16th century by the people of Djenné in West Africa, when physicians advised women to space their births at three year intervals.

China's Family planning policy forced couples to have no more than one child. Beginning in 1979 and being officially phased out in 2015, the policy was instated to control the rapid population growth that was occurring in the nation at that time. With the rapid change in population, China was facing many impacts, including poverty and homelessness. As a developing nation, the Chinese government was concerned that a continuation of the rapid population growth that had been occurring would hinder their development as a nation. The process of family planning varied throughout China, as people differed in their responsiveness to the one child policy, based on location and socioeconomic status. For example, many families in the cities accepted the policy more readily based on the lack of space, money, and resources that often occurs in the cities. Another example can be found in the enforcement of this rule; people living in rural areas of China were, in some cases, permitted to have more than one child, but had to wait several years after the birth of the first one. However, the people in rural areas of China were more hesitant in accepting this policy. China's population policy has been credited with a very significant slowing of China's population growth which had been higher before the policy was implemented. However, the policy has come under criticism that it has resulted in abuse of women and girls. Often implementation of the policy has involved forced abortions, forced sterilization, and infanticides. In areas where family planning regulations were strictly enforced like Guangxi Province, 80% of trafficked babies were girls as parents were more likely to sell their baby girls on the black market than baby boys. The number of girls that die within their first year of birth is twice that of boys. Another drawback of the policy is that China's elderly population is now increasing rapidly. However, while the punishment of "unplanned" pregnancy is a large fine, both forced abortion and forced sterilization can be charged with intentional assault, which is punished with up to ten years' imprisonment. Family planning in China had its benefits, and its drawbacks. For example, it helped reduce the population by about 300 million people in its first 20 years. A drawback is that there are now millions of people, and in China siblings are very important. Once the parent generation gets older, the children help take care of them, and the work is usually equally split among the siblings. Another benefit of the implementation of the one child law is that it reduced the fertility rate from about 2.75 children born per woman, to about 1.8 children born per woman in the 1979. In 2015, China ended the one child policy, announcing that all married couples will be allowed to have two children, in a bid to reverse the rapid aging of the labor force. The one child policy was replaced with a two child policy. In 2020, Chinese academics warn the country's leaders that the country's history of family planning have led to a decline in population growth. The decline in birthrate along with the increase in life expectancy could potentially mean that there will be too few workers to support the large aging population.

According to an investigative report by The Associated Press published 28 June 2020, the Chinese government is taking draconian measures to slash birth rates among Uyghurs and other minorities as part of a sweeping campaign to curb its Muslim population, even as it encourages some of the country's Han majority to have more children. While individual women have spoken out before about forced birth control, the practice is far more widespread and systematic than previously known, according to an AP investigation based on government statistics, state documents and interviews with 30 ex detainees, family members and a former detention camp instructor. The ongoing oppression of the Uyghur people and the violence against their reproductive rights started in 2017 in the far west region of Xinjiang, and is leading to what some experts are calling a form of "demographic genocide". Through their investigation they also found evidence that pregnant women were forced to have abortions even at the last stage of pregnancy. This decline is not only attributed to the splitting of couples, but also mass sterilization policies and forced IUD implantation. Between 2014 and 2018, the rate of IUD placements increased by more than 60% in Xinjiang, while it dropped in other areas of China. The organisation provides family planning advice, sex education, birth control services to the general public of Hong Kong. In the 1970s, due to the rapidly rising population, it launched the "Two Is Enough" campaign, which reduced the general birth rate through educational means. founded the International Planned Parenthood Federation with its counterparts in seven other countries. However, forecasted growth rate may be inaccurate due to high disparities in education among Indian females and Indian states. An increase in education rates has been associated with a decline in the national fertility rate of India. As of 2015, the national fertility rate among Indian females is 2.2 children per female, which is approximately 3 times less than India's national fertility rate in the 1960s. This shift in national fertility rate may also reflect a marked change in family planning practices within India. India's Ministry of Health and Family Welfare states that if adequate family planning access resources become available and accessible, India would reduce the number of infant deaths by 1,200,000. Some of the most prevalent forms of contraception used in India today include sterilization, which is the most common method, followed by use of condoms and oral contraceptive pills. However, the use of intrauterine devices (IUD's) remains markedly lower. Economic and cultural barriers also impede the delivery of family planning resources to all women on a national level. A lack of cohesive infrastructure in developing countries poses one great hurdle to physically delivering oral contraceptives and medications to woman residing in non urban areas. Additionally, the expensiveness of modern contraceptives limits women from regularly accessing these resources. Culturally, the use of contraceptives is discouraged and antagonized. Reports by the UN show birth control policies in Iran to be effective with the country topping the list of greatest fertility decreases. UN's Population Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs says that between 1975 and 1980, the total fertility number was 6.5. The projected level for Iran's 2005 to 2010 birth rate is fewer than two. In late July 2012, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei described Iran's contraceptive services as "wrong", and Iranian authorities are slashing birth control programs in what one Western newspaper (USA Today) describes as a "major reversal" of its long standing policy. Whether program cuts and high level appeals for bigger families will be successful is still unclear.

The sale of contraceptives was illegal in Ireland from 1935 until 1980, when it was legalized with strong restrictions, later loosened. It has been argued that the resulting demographic dividend played a role in the economic boom in Ireland that began in the 1990s and ended abruptly in 2008 (the Celtic tiger) was in part due to the legalisation of contraception in 1979 and subsequent decline in the fertility rate. In Ireland, the ratio of workers to dependents increased due to lower fertility—the reality of which has been questioned—but was raised further by increased female labor market participation.

In agreement with the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo, Pakistan pledged that by 2010 it would provide universal access to family planning. Additionally, Pakistan's Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper has set specific national goals for increases in family planning and contraceptive use. In 2011 just one in five Pakistani women ages 15 to 49 uses modern birth control.

In the Philippines, the Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Act of 2012 guarantees universal access to methods on contraception, fertility control, sexual education, and maternal care. While there is general agreement about its provisions on maternal and child health, there is great debate on its mandate that the Philippine government and the private sector will fund and undertake widespread distribution of family planning devices such as condoms, birth control pills, and IUDs, as the government continues to disseminate information on their use through all health care centers.

According to a 2004 study, current pregnancies were termed "desired and timely" by 58% of respondents, while 23% described them as "desired, but untimely", and 19% said they were "undesired". As of 2004, the share of women of reproductive age using hormonal or intrauterine birth control methods was about 46% (29% intrauterine, 17% hormonal). During the Soviet era high quality contraceptives were difficult to obtain, and abortion became the most common way of preventing unwanted births. Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union abortion rates have fallen considerably, but they are still higher than rates in many developed countries.

Population control in Singapore spans two distinct phases: first to slow and reverse the boom in births that started after World War II; and then, from the 1980s onwards, to encourage parents to have more children because birth numbers had fallen below replacement levels.

In 1970, Thailand's government declared a population policy that would battle the country's rapid population growth rate. This policy set a five year goal to reduce Thailand's population growth rate from 3 percent to 2.5 percent through methods such as spreading family planning awareness to rural families, or integrating family planning activities into maternal and child healthcare education. Public figures such as Mechai Viravaidya helped spread family planning awareness through public speakings and charitable activities.

Contraception has been available for free under the National Health Service since 1974, and 74% of reproductive age women use some form of contraception. The levonorgestrel intrauterine system has been massively popular. Despite the availability of highly effective contraceptives, about half of U. S. pregnancies are unintended. is a U. S. government program dedicated to providing family planning services for those in need. But funding for Title X as a percentage of total public funding to family planning client services has steadily declined from 44% of total expenditures in 1980 to 12% in 2006. Current funding for Title X is less than 40% of what is needed to meet the need for publicly funded family planning. Title X would need $737 million annually to meet the need for family planning services. Without publicly funded contraceptive services, the rates of unintended pregnancies, unplanned births and abortions would have been 67% higher. Medicaid has increased from 20% to 71% from 1980 to 2006. In 2006, Medicaid contributed $1.3 billion to public family planning. The $1.9 billion spent on publicly funded family planning in 2008 saved an estimated $7 billion in short term Medicaid costs. Such services helped women prevent an estimated 1.94 million unintended pregnancies and 810,000 abortions. A 2017 paper found that parents' access to family planning programs had a positive economic impact on their subsequent children: "Using the county level introduction of U. S. family planning programs between 1964 and 1973, we find that children born after programs began had 2.8% higher household incomes. They were also 7% less likely to live in poverty and 12% less likely to live in households receiving public assistance. After accounting for selection, the direct effects of family planning programs on parents' incomes account for roughly two thirds of these gains." A 2021 study found disparity among racial groups in the perceived quality of family planning care received, with white women (72%) more likely to rate their experience with their providers as excellent than Black (60%) and Hispanic women (67%).

In Uzbekistan, the government has pushed for uteruses to be removed from women in order to forcibly sterilize them.

For individuals who plan on building a family in the near or distant future, some options available are oocyte cryopreservation, IVF with cryopreservation of embryos using donor gametes, or ovarian tissue cryopreservation (OTC). The method with the highest likelihood of future pregnancies is oocyte freezing and embryo freezing. For individuals wanting to conceive very soon, they will need to use donor gametes. The donor gametes can be anonymous or known directed donors. These donors must undergo a mandated Food and Drug Administration (FDA) screenings which include questionnaires, physical examination, and sexually transmitted infection.

Lesbian couples need donor sperm to conceive through several options, including therapeutic donor insemination (TDI) with or without ovarian stimulation, autologous IVF, and reciprocal or co IVF. Reciprocal or co IVF is an option where one partner undergoes controlled ovarian hyper stimulation and oocyte retrieval followed by transfer of a fertilized embryo into the other's uterus. Co IVF is not considered oocyte donation because the oocyte is considered shared (just as the sperm is "shared" between heterosexual couples). Studies suggest that co IVF can lessen emotional insecurities in lesbian households. A barrier that gets in the way of becoming parents is the cost involved with fertility preservation options. For example, the use of sperm cryopreservation in the United States is less than 5% while countries such as the Netherlands, Australia and Israel have higher rates; this may be the result of challenges navigating health insurance coverage. For those looking for egg preservation, a study calculated that the median total cost (which includes egg freezing, egg thawing, and annual preservation fee) in United States was around $7,444, and the cumulative costs for one live birth of US$11,704 for an individual in the age groups ≤ 35 years. Other common concerns that arise when seeking pregnancy include having to stop or delay of hormonal therapy, worsening of gender dysphoria with treatment related to pregnancy. Interventions used to facilitate gender transition such as hormone therapy and gender affirming surgeries (e. g., genital surgery, and chest surgery) can temporarily or permanently impact the chance of becoming pregnant. The World Professional Organization for Transgender Health (WPATH) and American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRMA) recommend offering counseling on the impact on family planning and transitioning to all transgender individuals Even though many transgender and gender nonbinary youth express desire to receive fertility counseling and recommendations from professional organization, studies indicate that only a small portion have these conversations with their health care team. Furthermore, testosterone can cause abnormal vaginal development in female fetuses (especially in the first trimester of pregnancy), becoming a concern for transgender men who conceived while on hormone therapy. Moreover, condoms are one of the most common contraceptive methods in transgender men, while another subset report no contraception use which can lead to unintended pregnancies. Some challenges to adopting a form of family planning method among this population varies depending on the method. For instance, fear of prevention of masculinization with use of estrogen based contraceptives, and gender dysphoria with the use of contraceptive devises inside cervical/pelvic cavity. Additionally, negative experiences in the health care system related to gender identity, and denial of health care based on gender identity makes it difficult for this community to access health care and family planning resources. is increasingly encouraged, to track barriers to effective family planning along with the efficacy, uptake, and provision of family planning services.

Family planning has reduced the burden of childbearing from women. Now having to raise fewer children than before, women are no longer as economically dependant on their partners. As such, they are not necessitated to stay in marriages, due to the confidence that they can raise children with less financial difficulty that if they had several children. In order to preserve traditional gender roles, social conservatives seek to reverse the social changes brought by family planning and declining birth rate. They are opposed to most forms of family planning and advocate for larger families with many children. To this end, they sometimes cite the decline of religion or "the family", but as Hans Rosling notes in his book "Factfulness", this has little to do with religious or famiy values, and are merely "patriarchal values".

As of March 2020, there were an estimated 450 million women using modern contraceptives across 114 priority low and middle income countries. The COVID 19 pandemic as well as social distancing and other strategies to reduce transmission are anticipated to impact the ability of these women to continue using contraception. The number of unintended pregnancies will increase as the lockdown continues and services disruptions are extended. Some 47 million women in 114 low and middle income countries are projected to be unable to use modern contraceptives if the average lockdown, or COVID 19 related disruption, continues for six months with major disruptions to services. For every three months the lockdown continues, assuming high levels of disruption, up to 2 million additional women may be unable to use modern contraceptives. If the lockdown continues for six months and there are major service disruptions due to COVID 19, an additional 7 million unintended pregnancies are expected to occur. It is supported by a group of international NGOs, including:

Asian Pacific Council on Contraception, Centro Latinamericano Salud y Mujer, European Society of Contraception and Reproductive Health, German Foundation for World Population, International Federation of Pediatric and Adolescent Gynecology, International Planned Parenthood Federation, Marie Stopes International, Population Services International, The Population Council, The United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Women Deliver.