Family Planning Programs Need to be Expanded in Developed Countries

While many researchers generally credit the desire for smaller families for the decline in fertility rates in developing, low-income countries, new research suggests that prevention of unwanted births may actually be a larger factor.

"Estimating Earth's Human Carrying Capacity"

Casterline gave an invited talk on the contribution of family planning programs to stabilizing world population on Feb. 20 at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington, D.C. Projections suggest the human population will peak at more than 9 billion people by 2050. "The large increases in population that are predicted will only exacerbate other problems, such as resource depletion," Casterline said. He also stated that in order to prevent that more family planning programs need to be put into effect and followed.

Casterline’s Suggestions for Family Planning

"We know there are women in many parts of the world who would prefer to have fewer children. We need to do a better job in providing them the effective family planning services they want," Casterline said.

Conclusion

Most couple think of how many children they want then go from there however, often times fear of contraceptives, ethnical, religious beliefs do not allow for family planning, and that seems to be where the majority of the problem lies.

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/02/110220103805.htm