EQUITY, SECURITY AND FERTILITY - A REACTION TO THOMAS

This paper assesses recent arguments that sustained fertility decline cannot occur in circumstances of inequality, insecurity, and injustice . Naturally, these conditions are to be abhorred. However, the empiric al record suggests that none of them acts as an absolute barrier to ma ss adoption of birth control and subsequent fertility decline. Recent trends in Bangladesh illustrate this point most vividly. One of the gr eatest fallacies of many fertility theories has been the assumption th at there is an economic or social imperative in underdeveloped countri es for couples to have many children. To the contrary, the historic no rm for all societies has been an average of only about two surviving c hildren per woman, implying an adaptation to low, not high, net fertil ity.