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Politics and Population Control in Latin America

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2011

Mayone Stycos
Affiliation:
Cornell University
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Abstract

The remarkable change in the United States attitude toward family planning was symbolized last October by President Johnson's acceptance of the Margaret Sanger Award for his “vigorous and farsighted leadership in bringing the United States Government to enunciate and implement an affirmative, effective population policy at home and abroad.” Less than a decade before, when the very mention of Margaret Sanger's name in official circles was considered risque, President Eisenhower had made it clear that family planning was not the business of the U.S. government. Few could have predicted that in 1966 the President of the United States would say, “It is essential that all families have access to information and services that will allow freedom to choose the number and spacing of their children within the dictates of individual conscience.”

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Trustees of Princeton University 1967

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References

1 Planned Parenthood News (November 1966Google Scholar).

2 President Johnson's Special Message to Congress on Health and Education, March 1, 1966.

3 Stycos, J. Mayone, “Opinions of Latin American Intellectuals Toward Population and Birth Control,” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, CCCLX (July 1965), 1126CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

4 Observaciones del Exemo. Sr. R. Tomić, Embajada de Chile (Washington, May 5, 1966).

5 Reported in Survey of International Development, 111 (June 15, 1966).

6 Diário de Minas, August 5, 1966. For a detailed account of the Brazilian reaction, see Cornell University International Population Program, Latin American Newspaper Coverage of Population and Family Planning (Ithaca 1967).

7 Diário de Minas, August 17, 1966.

8 August 19, 1966.

9 Correio Brasiliense, August 6, 1966.

10 (January 1966).

11 As part of a 1966 summer project in Colombia of the International Population Program, Sergio Sismondo carried out an investigation of the attitudes of Colombian university professors toward economic development and population problems. Fifty-one interviews were completed, divided more or less evenly among the departments of sociology, economics, philosophy and humanities, and psychology in a leading Colombian university. The universe was defined as the total staffs in these departments, except in the cases of economics and psychology, in which certain ranks or groupings were excluded. In only ten instances was an individual selected for the sample not interviewed. However, 198 appointments had to be made in order to obtain the 51 interviews, i.e., an average of four appointments per interview, despite the fact that most interviews were completed in one sitting. The average duration was two hours and forty minutes, with a range of from fifty minutes to six hours. Translated extracts from these interviews have been employed throughout this article.

12 Popov, A. Y. (1953), cited in Petersen, William, The Politics of Population (New York 1964), 118Google Scholar.

13 Mr. Kochubei (Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic), Population Commission, A/C 2/SR. 867, December 11, 1962.

14 Mr. Serafimov (Bulgaria), Population Commission, A/C. 2/SR. 875, December 18, 1962.

15 Mr. Solodovnikov (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics), Population Commission, E/SR. 1246, April 9, 1963.

16 Sauvy, Alfred, Fertility and Survived (New York 1961), 204Google Scholar.

17 Mr. Podyachikh (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics), Population Commission, E/CN. 9/SR. 170, February 11, 1963.

18 E. Arab-Ogly, in Uteraturnaya Gazeta, cited in Atlas (December 1966).

19 Observaciones . . . R. Tomić.

20 International Population Program interviews.

21 Ibid.

22 Ibid.

23 Juan de Onis, in the New York Times, December 5, 1966. In Chile, prominent leftist physicians are among the leadership of the family planning movement Nationalism takes a much milder form in Chile, and a more detailed comparison with Brazil might be rewarding.

24 International Population Program interviews.

25 Ibid.

26 Joseph D. Tydings, Speech to the U.S. Senate, October 22, 1966.

27 Joseph S. Clark, Speech to the U.S. Senate, June 14, 1965 (italics added).

28 Population Crisis (November 1966).

29 Ibid.

30 Speech to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Development Assistance Committee, July 21, 1966.

31 “La Encuesta Hall,” Caretas (August 28, 1964).

32 Cited in Alliance for Progress Weekly Newsletter (February 7, 1966).

33 Speech by Dr. Javier Arias Stella on the inauguration of the Peruvian Center of Population and Development Studies, Lima, January 14, 1965.

34 Stephen Enke, World Population Conference, September 1965 (italics added).

35 Lamson, Robert, “Needed Research for Population Policy,” American Behavioral Scientist, ix (February 1966), 2325CrossRefGoogle Scholar (italics added). It is stated that the article represents the views of the author and not those of the Office of Civil Defense or the Department of the Army.

36 Observaciones . . . R. Tomić.

37 “More Headway on Birth Control,” New York Times, June 21, 1965.

38 Cited in Indian Voices (October 1965), 5.

39 International Population Program interviews.

40 The statement was initially signed by the heads of state of Colombia, Finland, Malaysia, Morocco, Nepal, Singapore, Korea, Sweden, Tunisia, the U.A.R., Yugoslavia, and India. Several additional countries have subsequently signed.

41 Populorum Progressio, March 28, 1967.

42 Quoted in Arab-Ogly.