• Editors' Summary
• Credits

1. Why Informed Choice Matters
2. Making Family Planing Decisions
3. Policies for Informed Choice
• International Consensus for Informed Choice
• National Support for Informed Choice
• Policies That Promote Access
• Eliminating Targets, Incentives, and Disincentives
• Social and Economic Policies
• Donor Agencies
4. Communication for Choice
5. Improving Access
6. Managing for Informed Choice
7. Client-Provider Communication

• Figures
• Table
• Side-bars
• Bibliography

• What can be done?
• Women know what they want
• Why communities matter
• Eliminating targets
• More methods, more choices
• "Your health is in your hands"
• Do clients have choices?
• Please Ask!
• How much guidance?
• Active clients, better choices
• Counseling continuing clients

• POPLINE
• Media/Materials Clearinghouse
• Other Reports
• To Order
• CCP Home Page

Published by the Population Information Porgram, Center for Communication Programs, The Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, 111 Market Place, Suite 310, Baltimore, Maryland 21202, USA.

Policies for Informed Choice

Public polices can support informed choice of family planning. The principle of informed choice is recognized internationally and is based on human rights (426). National governments have responsibility for ensuring that the principle becomes a reality.

Two fundamental human rights underlie informed choice: (1) the right to decide freely how many children to have and when to have them and (2) the right of access to family planning information and services. These rights have long had their basis in international consensus statements, including the Proclamation of Teheran, issued at the 1968 International Conference on Human Rights (425).

The 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) Program of Action states that “the aim of family planning programs must be to enable couples and individuals to decide freely and responsibly the number and spacing of their children and to have the information and means to do so and to ensure informed choice and make available a full range of safe and effective methods” (426).

Governments that sign international documents of principle make a commitment to act on these principles (202). The extent of government attention to such commitments and the amount of money allocated to implementing them, however, vary considerably around the world. Informed choice advocates have urged that governments be held to their commitments, that people be encouraged to exercise their rights, and that providers respect these rights (204, 315, 320).

IPPF The IPPF Charter recognizes the principle of informed choice. Official policies can advocate choice in family planning.

Zambia Ministry of Health As in Zambia, countries can update their guidelines to enable more people to get their planning method of choice.