Family Planning — Ends and Means

Abstract

When parenthood is intentional rather than accidental, parents and children alike benefit. Families can gain so much from family planning that none should lack whatever knowledge and help they need to make it effective. Most of the people who practise contraception still do so without expert help, using methods current long before family planning services were provided. They control their fertility by abstinence, by confining intercourse to a ‘safe’ period, by coitus interruptus, and by using condoms and spermicidal preparations. They get their information from friends, books, newspapers, magazines, leaflets, and advertisements, and they buy their supplies from pharmacists, barbers, and mail-order departments.