Citation

Abraham De D'ornellas R. Cuad Comun AMIDEP 1987; ePub(1): 113-118.

Vernacular Title

La prensa escrita y la planificacion familiar.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1987)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

12281466

Abstract

The treatment in the press of family planning hinges on two fundamental factors: the taboo of the leftist groups and the taboo of the Catholic Church, whose head is against abortion under any circumstances. Leftist views insinuate that family planning is the genocidal plan of North American imperialists against the Third World and, in particular, against Latin America. This genocidal plan is supposed to subject poor populations to international schemes. In the press family planning is often treated in a sanctimonious fashion, lumping it together with topics like pornography, sex, and violence. In 1983 the daily newspaper Expreso published a supplement running every week for almost three months about the issue of population, which dealt fairly extensively with such topics as population and housing, education, employment, and urban proliferation, as well as responsible parenthood and child survival. In addition, there was a detailed description of contraceptive methods. In October 1986 another surprising thing happened: the President of Peru talked about the topic of family planning, which at the time was an act of courage. Since then much has changed; the whole world is interested in family planning and certain aspects of population. Since October 1986 more has been published in this domain than during the preceding 20 years. In contrast, the Church reacted differently to this issue: after some initial caution, the conference of Peruvian bishops attacked all methods of modern contraceptives and private institutions of family planning. The information boom in family planning will certainly continue. At the moment this flood of articles and editorials about the issue is an expression of the anxiety of families related to uncontrolled reproduction and the fear of overpopulation in large cities devoid of minimal services.

Language: es