Abstract

PIP: In Morocco, fertility levels have dropped in the past 30 years, and women have found that freedom from perpetual child-bearing has allowed them to make various contributions to society. One of the first Moroccan women elected to parliament noted that family planning best succeeds when it is the result of informed, personal choice enabled by education. A woman who is a prominent journalist noted that the availability of oral contraceptives has contributed to the emancipation of Moroccan women. A female television personality decried currently available television health messages, yet found cause for optimism in the receptiveness of Moroccan society to properly presented television messages. A woman who is a singer as well as a clinical psychologist found that birth control has made women more fulfilled, more independent, and has freed them of the aging which occurs with continual child-bearing. Another female journalist found that the Moroccan women who have been able to overcome social pressure to view themselves primarily as child-bearers attribute the advent of birth control to their liberation. Not only can they pursue careers, they can expend more energy on each of their children and assume equal position with the men in their lives. Finally, a female film maker asserted that birth control has enhanced life for women, who now have choices; children, who benefit from being wanted; and men, who are relieved of the burden of providing for large families.