[2] The national family planning program Rosenfield helped develop trained auxiliary midwives to prescribe birth control.
He was a leader in promoting the view that necessary steps for controlling population growth and achieving economic development were the provision of reproductive health programs and the raising of the status of women.
By the time of his death, the initiative had brought comprehensive health care to hundreds of thousands of women and infants throughout the world.
In 2006, he received the "Maggie" Award, highest honor of the Planned Parenthood Federation, in tribute to their founder, Margaret Sanger.
Recipients of the award include past board members Kelly Brennan, Mal Warwick, Larry William, Rob Tessler, Jerry Shefren, Kassahun Kebede, Linda Tripp, Teri Whitcraft, Bill Mann, Denis Robson, Ling Lew, and Thomas Huntington, as well as notable advocates and supporters of the foundation’s work, such as Conrad Person, Jerry Goldstein, Al Malvino, Dr. Iftikher Mahmood, Peter Singer, and Charlie Bresler.
"[1] Rosenfield had been diagnosed with both amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and myasthenia gravis in 2005, two separate diseases that affect motor nerve functions.
[3] Rosenfield died of ALS at age 75 on October 12, 2008 at his home in Hartsdale, New York, and is survived by his daughter, his son, and his wife Clare.