In British Hong Kong in the 1970s, citizens were also highly encouraged to have two children as a limit (although it was not mandated by law), and it was used as part of the region's family planning strategies.
[10] The organization provides family planning advice, sex education, and birth control services to the general public of Hong Kong.
In the 1970s due to the rapidly rising population, it launched the "Two is Enough" campaign,[10] which reduced the general birth rate through educational means.
[15] (The colloquial term "births per woman" is usually formalized as the Total Fertility Rate (TFR), a technical term in demographic analysis meaning the average number of children that would be born to a woman over her lifetime if she were to experience the exact current age-specific fertility rates through her lifetime.)
[18][19][20] Han Chinese living in rural areas were often permitted to have two children, as exceptions existed if the first child was a daughter.
[23] On 29 October 2015, Xinhua reported the change in the existing law to a two-child policy citing a statement from the Chinese Communist Party.
[28] According to The Economist, the new two-child policy may have negative implications on gender roles, with new expectations for women to bear more children and to abandon their careers.
[33] The change in cultural norms appears to be having negative consequences and leads to fear of a large aging population with smaller younger generations; thus the lack of workforce to drive the economy.
[35] When the family planning program was initiated, Iran's Health Ministry launched a nationwide campaign and introduced contraceptives - pills, condoms, IUDs, implants, tubal ligations, and more.
The government used a system of information, education, communication (IEC) campaign and publicly accessible contraceptives to curb the population.
The aims of the Renovation Policy were to end Vietnam's economic isolation, increase competitiveness, and raise living standards.
[54] Furthermore, if families did not comply with the two-child policy, they were required to pay high fees and were unable to move into urban centers.
The policy combined advertisements and education to promote a smaller family "so people may enjoy a plentiful and happy life.
"[55] The Vietnamese government explicitly linked the family planning policy with "historical and cultural traditions, value structures and development objectives," encouraging a collectivist mindset in which individuals honor the needs of the nation above their own.
[53] The goal of the policy was to reduce the Vietnamese fertility rate to the replacement level of 2.1[47] by 2015, so that the country could have a stable population in the mid-21st century.
In 1997, the goal was accelerated to reach the replacement level by 2005, and the government subsequently integrated an increased use of abortion as a means to curb population growth.
"[57] However, shortly after, the government implemented the National Strategy on Population 2001–2010, which again called for decreasing the fertility rate to the replacement level by 2005.
[43] To address this confusion, the government issued Resolution 47 in 2005 which stated that "to sustain high economic growth, Viet Nam needs to pursue a population control policy until it has become an industrialized country."
[61] In another study conducted by the America-based non-profit, non-governmental organization Population Reference Bureau, the number found was lower at 2.3.
[64] Traditionally, men oversee and are responsible for household enterprises, managing agriculture, ancestral worship, and carrying on the family name.
[65] However, mothers who pursue certain occupations, such as government cadres and farmers, are more likely to want a particular sex of child and have higher sex-ratio differences at birth.
This reflects the pressure for government employees to adhere to the two-child limit, and the perceived necessity of males for manual labor in the farm.
The widespread sale of birth control devices will be permitted to facilitate their use by everybody that needs them,"[54] the only modern contraceptive readily available in Vietnam is the IUD.
[67] However, many women choose not to use it due to the side effects, such as increased bleeding, back and abdominal pains, headache, and general weakness.
[70] Vietnam also has some of the world's most liberal abortion laws, though the Vietnamese government is aiming to reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies and abortion-related difficulties.
First, because women do not have access to contraceptive methods besides IUDs, whilst condoms remain expensive relative to average income, as a result many do not use effective birth control.
[69] Furthermore, the era of modernization and development of free-market reforms since the 1980s has led to a rise in premarital and unwanted pregnancy, and subsequently increased abortion services.
Families making a new benefit claim (or whose circumstances change) will have the 2-child policy applied to them irrespective of when their children were born.
A coalition of the UK's largest Christian denominations and Jewish groups pointed out that the policy discriminates against people whose religion compels them to have larger families.
A United Nations committee on children’s rights asked the British government to explain the policy last year, because of concerns about women having to somehow prove they were raped.