| Abstract: | In this article the medical director of IPPF, Dr. Malcolm Potts, reviews some new aspects of family planning as discussed in a regional IPPF conference in 1970 in Tokyo and as he gathered impressions from his travels in Asia. Nearly all Asian countries have governmental family planning programs. However, for the most part, bottlenecks have developed in these programs, and the achievements have been disappointing. The population in Asia is biased towards the younger age groups. Migration makes only a marginal difference. Unemployment is a serious social program which will be magnified by additional labor force. Japan has demonstrated that legal abortion can be a relatively safe procedure while in Korea induced abortion is illegal. Conversely, in Korea oral contraceptives have been successfully distributed in the governmental program while in Japan the method is still not approved by the government. A bill to reform the abortion law is before the Indian parliament. In Mainland China, IUDs, oral contraceptives and condoms are in use; sterilization and abortion are available upon request. |
