Supreme Leader of Iran called for the shift to pronatalist population policies to view the low fertility rate. Iran’s Parliament proposed a bill to curb contraceptive knowledge and services as a solution. This study aimed to investigate which groups of women will be adversely affected if subsidized contraceptive methods are curbed.
This study used recent data from the Tehran Survey of Fertility with a sample of 3012 married women of reproductive age. It used multinomial logistic regression analysis to identify women with a higher likelihood of using government-funded contraceptive methods.
Eighty-two percent of currently married women living in Tehran use a contraceptive method. The use of long-acting contraception declined from 34% in 2000 to 20% in 2014. The prevalence of male methods increased in the same period. Multivariate results showed that women who have many children, want no more children, live in poor districts, and have low education are more likely to use long-acting contraceptive methods than withdrawal and condoms.
The study concluded that low socioeconomic status women who want to stop childbearing are the most vulnerable subgroups if the publicly-funded family planning services are curbed.
Reference: https://srh.bmj.com/content/43/1/37
