Family planning

Family planning is the consideration of the number of children a person wishes to have, including the choice to have no children, and the age at which they wish to have them. Factors that may influence family planning decisions can range from simply not wanting children, health factors, relationship status, career considerations, or financial circumstances. If sexually active, family planning may involve the use of condoms, contraception and other techniques to control the timing of reproduction.

Other aspects of family planning—aside from contraception—include sex educationpre-conception counseling and management, and infertility management. Family planning, as defined by the United Nations and the World Health Organization, encompasses services leading up to conception. Abortion is another form of family planning.

"Family planning" is sometimes used as a synonym or euphemism for access to and the use of contraception. However, it often involves methods and practices in addition to contraception. Additionally, many might wish to use contraception but are not necessarily planning a family. "Family planning" has become a catch-all phrase for much of the work undertaken in this realm. Historically, and currently, across the world, notions of family planning place the majority of the burden and health risks on women in a heterosexual relationship, despite condoms, vactomies and other male contraceptive options being increasingly accessible, lower risk and more affordable than women's. Childbearing decisions center women in the discussion, as notions of women's empowerment and reproductive autonomy have gained traction in many parts of the world. Family planning is usually applied to a female-male couple who wish to limit the number of children they have or control pregnancy timing (also known as birth spacing). Family planning, such as increased access to condoms, contraceptives and abortion has been shown to reduce teenage birth rates, and birth rates for women in general.

It is sometimes clarifying to separate the term "family planning" from "family planning program". A 2017 textbook by Poston and Bouvier defines the former as "attempts by couples to regulate the number and spacing of their births", and the latter as "a systematic effort, often government-sponsored, to provide the information, supplies, and services for modern fertility control". The programs, used by many developing countries between 1950 and 1995, are controversial due to coercion, primarily in China, India, and Peru. A report from the World Bank Group concluded that "for the most part, the family planning program 'experiment' worked: policy and program interventions contributed substantially to the revolutionary rise of contraceptive use and to the decline in fertility that has occurred in the developing world".