Birth control and family planning in Council of Europe member States

Recommendation 675 (1972)

Author(s):

Parliamentary Assembly

Origin

Assembly debate on 18 October 1972 (10th Sitting) (see Doc. 3166, report of the Committee on Population and Refugees). Text adopted by the Assembly on 18 October 1972 (10th Sitting).

Thesaurus

The Assembly,

1. Considering that, despite the population explosion of the world as a whole, the population growth of the developed countries does not appear to be such as to require coercive policies ;

2. Considering further that the profound socio-cultural changes that have taken place in West European society over the last fifty years have led to couples claiming the right to decide upon the number and spacing of their children ;

3. Recalling with satisfaction that the Second European Population Conference (1971) considered this right to be a fundamental one ;

4. Deploring that in the member States induced abortion is still frequently used as a means of family planning ;

5. Convinced that the use of contraceptives should be promoted in order to limit the number of abortions and to give couples the possibility of deciding upon the number and spacing of their children,

6. Recommends that the Committee of Ministers invite member governments of the Council of Europe :

I.

a to authorise the sale of contraceptives after adequate technical and clinical testing - except for oral contraceptives for which medical prescription is advisable ;

b to create family planning advice bureaux in urban and rural areas, and to encourage the integration of family planning within the general medical and social services ;

c to ensure that young people are provided with suitable sex education, subject to respect for parents' rights and, inter alia, to promote premarriage courses ;

d to include teaching on family planning in medical, para-medical and social welfare schools ;

e to support the existence and action of national governmental and non-governmental family planning services as coordinating bodies for representatives of relevant professional and other organisations, as a discussion forum and channel for information and education ;

II. to adopt the following social measures in order to improve the welfare of families with children :

a increase in family allowances and perhaps payment of an allowance to mothers remaining at home, especially in the case of families at the lower end of the income scale ;

b strengthening of mother and child protection services ;

c improvement of low-cost housing programmes ;

d establishment of crèches and day-nurseries ;

e improvement of labour legislation relating to mothers who go out to work ;

f no penalty should be imposed on any woman regarding her employment and prospects in the event of her becoming pregnant ;

g encouragement of adoption of children, in particular by implementing the European Convention on adoption ;

h legal non-discrimination against unmarried mothers and children born out of wedlock.