NY Times Examines New South Korean Policy Encouraging Couples To Have More Children

Main Category: Fertility
Article Date: 23 Aug 2005 - 2:00 PDT

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The New York Times on Sunday examined a new South Korean policy aimed at encouraging couples to have more children, after decades of promoting smaller families. Until 2004, South Korea's national health plan paid for vasectomies and tubal ligations to help people limit the number of children to two or fewer, but the plan now covers reverse procedures for the operations and provides care for a couple's third or fourth child. Quick economic growth and social changes have caused "disturbingly low birth rates" in South Korea and some other Asian countries, and rural areas have been particularly hard hit, according to the Times. Hwang Dae Rae, the county official who proposed the plan to encourage more children, said the new policy will not solve the problem of low birth rates in the country but is "symbolic" of the government's new approach to family planning, the Times reports (Onishi, New York Times, 8/21).

New York Times

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