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FROM NOW TO ZERO: Fertility, Contraception & Abortion in America by Leslie Aldridge & Charles F. Westoff

FROM NOW TO ZERO: Fertility, Contraception & Abortion in America

By

Pub Date: June 8th, 1971
Publisher: Little, Brown

What a welcome and innovative change from Alan Guttmacher reworded or Alan Guttmacher revised -- this backward-and-forward-looking study based on a large 1965 survey conducted under the auspices of Princeton University and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. Contraception is still ""imperfect and inadequate"" but the pill, in spite of many controversies and dropouts, is still the preferred method except among the Jews and including the Catholics. (One must take into account throughout the five year interval since these figures were acquired.) The authors also preview hopeful new devices, most interesting of which is the implant. As for abortion, until 1970 there were a million a year in the U.S. and, although legislation presumably will open up the possibilities from state to state, the facilities still are limited and costly for legal abortions while illegal ones continue to jeopardize a great many lives. In the discussion of fertility and the birth-rate trend, education, income, region and religion are major considerations which apply as well to both black fertility and contraception, where a higher rate of births and unwanted pregnancies still prevail in spite of a slightly lower rate of intercourse (one of the many myths jettisoned). This work is the most informative which has appeared, evaluating throughout professional (medical, sociological, etc.) as well as personal attitudes as we approach 'zero' or a stationary population with both its negative and positive aspects in terms of social stratification. For both immediate interest and long-range referral, an mandatory book.