Indicators of contraceptive policy for nations at three levels of development

The study is concerned with examining variations in contraceptive policies among 74 nations of the world. Employing quantitative data collected by the United Nations, the national policies for three types of contraceptive devices (birth control pills, condoms and IUDs) were examined for nations at three levels of development. The policies for the three items were found to be highly intercorrelated. Given this fact, a restrictiveness index related to the commercial sale of the three types of contraceptive was constructed. A set of independent variables was then related to this restrictive index employing multivariate analysis. The results differed appreciably for the developed and non-developed nations. For the developed nations restrictiveness was significantly related to the fertility rate and the number of physicians in the society, whereas for the developing nations it was significantly related to the infant mortality rate in the society.