Sexual and reproductive health and rights: The relevance of family planning

Global female reproductive health remains unacceptably compromised. After reviewing important reproductive health conditions, the chapter suggests that an underlying reason for this dismal situation is that fertility rates in low-income settings remain too high; thus slowing fertility will not only bring many individual benefts (including to the health of mothers and children) but can also help precipitate benefcial social changes, generating helpful feedback loops, which further improve health. Controversially, it is also argued that (complementing neoliberalism and Catholicism; see previous chapter), a reason for persisting high fertility in some settings may be an inadvertent consequence of an 'overreach' led by elements of the women's movement, evident at the 1994 Cairo International Conference on Population and Development. The chapter also appeals for respectful dialogue between those who perceive sinister 'neo-Malthusian' motivations as underpinning concerns about high population growth and those who argue that high fertility is a factor in underdevelopment.