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Toward a World Population Program

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 May 2009

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The world is witnessing not only a population explosion but a family planning revolution. For the first time in history there is concrete evidence that people throughout most of the world accept the need for family planning and desire that family planning services be made available to them. And for the first time in history we have the technical means to implement family planning programs—the pill, the intrauterine contraceptive device (IUCD), and other methods. Moreover, research now under way suggests that reliance on a contraceptive pill that must be taken daily or an IUCD that is presently unsatisfactory to 25 percent of those using it will some day be of only historical interest—mere shadows reflecting the dim dark ages in the history of family planning. Already researchers have had success with an injectable contraceptive that provides long-standing immunity from pregnancy.

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Articles
Copyright
Copyright © The IO Foundation 1968

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References

1 Grateful acknowledgment is hereby made to the staff of the Population Council for help in preparing the following estimates.

2 It is difficult to get an average cost estimate that will apply to the ten million women in the developed countries exposed to unwanted pregnancy. The greater average level of health standards, communications, transportation, and education is a factor reducing the cost of providing family planning services in developed countries below what it is in less developed countries. On the other hand, the general cost structure and the standard of health service considered acceptable is higher; and more sophisticated contraceptives (the pill) are more likely to be used. Assuming that the $14 per person employed for less developed countries is a reasonable point of reference for developed countries, we would have to add something like $100–$200 million to the figures given above to get global cost estimates for closing the family planning gap including developed as well as less developed countries.

3 A Critical Evaluation of National Family Planning Programs,” Statement to the 8th International Conference of the International Planned Parenthood Federation, Santiago, Chile, 04 1967, p. 11Google Scholar.

4 Statement to the 43rd session of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), WHO Press Release WHO/24, July 14, 1967.

5 For a proposal to this effect see the author's “Time for a New Marshall Plan,” The New York Times, June 3, 1967, p. 30, and his statement included in Association of the Bar of the City of New York, Law and Policy-Making for Trade Among “Have” and “Have-Not” Nations (Dobbs Ferry, N.Y: Oceana Publications, 1968)Google Scholar.

6 General Assembly Resolution 1838 (XVII), December 18, 1962.

7 The New York Times, December 3, 1959, p. 18.

8 Gardner, Richard N., “Population Growth, Economic Development, and the United Nations,” Department of State Bulletin, 01 7, 1963 (Vol. 48, No. 1228), p. 18Google Scholar.

9 Department of State Bulletin, 01 25, 1965 (Vol. 52, No. 1335), p. 96Google Scholar.

10 UN Document A/C.2/L.657.

11 Department of State Bulletin, 01 7, 1963 (Vol. 48, No. 1228), p. 19Google Scholar.

12 ECOSOC Resolution 1084 (XXXIX), July 30, 1965.

13 General Assembly Resolution 2211 (XXI), December 17, 1966.

14 UN Press Release SG/SM/620, December 9, 1966, pp. 1–2.

15 UN Press Release ECOSOC/198, SG/SM/51, July 11, 1967, p. 3.

16 United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, Approved Programme and Budget for 1967–1968 (Paris, 01 1967), p. 328Google Scholar.

17 World Health Assembly Resolution WHA 18.49 of May 21, 1965.

18 World Health Organization Official Records (19th Assembly), No. 152, p. 368Google Scholar.

19 Ibid., p. 384.

20 World Health Assembly Resolution WHA 19.43 of May 20, 1966.

21 WHO Press Release WHO/24, July 14, 1967, p. 5.

22 For the Commission's report see Economic and Social Council Official Records (39th session), Supplement No. 9.

23 UN Press Release ECOSOC/198, SG/SM/51, July 11, 1967, p. 3.

24 The author served as Chairman of this committee. Its other members were Eugene R. Black, Cass Canfield, Dr. Leslie Corsa, Jr., Gardner Cowles, A. W. Dent, General William H. Draper, Jr., Mrs. Albert D. Lasker, David E. Lilienthal, John D. Rockefeller, 3rd, Mrs. Edith S. Sampson, George N. Shuster, and Dr. Aaron Stern. For the text of the report see Gardner, Richard N. (ed.), Blueprint for Peace (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1966)Google Scholar, Chapter 6.

25 Ibid., p. 140.

26 For congressional reaction to the illustrative budget and to the author's proposal for a World Population Program under UN auspices see U.S. Congress, House, Committee on Foreign Affairs, Hearings, Foreign Assistance Act of 1967, 90th Congress, 1st Session, 1967, Part V, pp. 9711011, and Part VI, pp. 1127–1157Google Scholar; and U.S. Congress, Senate, Committee on Foreign Relations, Hearings, Foreign Assistance Act of 1967, 90th Congress, 1st Session, 1967, pp. 4774Google Scholar.

27 UN Press Release ECOSOC 198, SG/SM/V, July 11, 1967, p. 3. See also “Additional Financing of the Expanded United Nations Population Programme,” aide-mémoire circulated by the UN Secretariat to governments and private agencies in July 1967.