anti‐natalist

anti‐natalist Concerned with limiting population growth. The People's Republic of China has pursued anti‐natalist policies, notably the ‘one‐child’ strategy, for over a decade. While anti‐natalist government policies may be instrumental in lowering birth rate, state coercion may have unexpected and damaging results; reports in 1995 suggested that abortion of female children had become common in China, so that male : female sex ratios at birth had become grotesquely imbalanced (rising in one province to 140 : 100), and that female infanticide and the abandonment of girl babies is common. Research on population growth suggests that improving opportunities for women is the best contraceptive. See birth rate, demographic transition model.