Impact of Family Planning Programmes on Fertility: The U.S. Experience

"Numerous studies have sought to evaluate the demographic impact of family planning programs in less developed countries, but the results are sometimes ambiguous because of inadequate data as well as the inherent difiiculties in isolating the effects of a single program from other, simultaneous social changes? In the United States, where the available data generally are more adequate, few attempts have thus far been made to assess the impact of the national program.3 The availability of 1969 county-level statistics from family planning clinics and 1970 county-level census data on women of reproductive age and their children provided a unique Opportunity to attempt a systematic national evaluation. Accordingly, this study, the Family Planning Program (FPP) Impact Study, was undertaken to determine whether family planning clinic programs have had a demonstrable impact, net of other factors, on the fertility of US. women." Rossi 1987: "But, there are also many exceptions to the iron rule! The 'iron' in the Iron Law has shown itself to be somewhat spongy and therefore easily, although not frequently, broken. Some social programs have shown positive effects in the desired directions, and there are even some quite spectacular successes: the American old age pension system plus Medicare has dramatically improved the lives of our older citizens. Medicaid has managed to deliver medical services to the poor to the extent that the negative correlation between income and consumption of medical services has declined dramatically since enactment. The family planning clinics subsidize by the federal government were effective in reducing the number of births in areas where they were implemented (Cutright and Jaffe, 1977)."