9.17.08: “I would argue that it’s disingenuous to say that the spread of family planning wasn’t important to the fall of fertility. Some countries didn’t need active government programs because they had private-sector medical care and NGOs, who, without much government assistance, were making sure that a variety of family-planning programs were available to people.

If you don’t have contraceptives, you’re going to have a large family, or you’ll have to be abstinent, and I think that the record shows that most people don’t tend to be abstinent. You can’t avoid pregnancy by wishing. You can’t avoid pregnancy by reading books. You have to have contraceptives in order not to become pregnant when you’re sexually active. And someone, whether it’s the government, or the private sector or non-governmental organizations, needs to make sure that those contraceptives are there and there is information provided to women about their availability.” — Robert Engelman in Salon