Peace Without Poison

Starting in 1968 with President Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr (1968-1979), Iraq carried out a policy oflowering the nation’s total fertility rate. This policy continued throughout the presidency ofSaddam Hussein (1968-2003).There is no evidence to suggest that Iraq’s leaders used covert or involuntary methods ofpopulation control. The decline in fertility from a peak of more than 7 children per woman in1970 to 5.5 by the end of Saddam Hussein’s reign was accomplished legally through theprovision of contraceptives and family planning services.The leaders of Iraq after the Coalition Provisional Authority (2003-2004) appear to havecontinued their predecessors’ legal methods of population control. From 2004 until today, thetotal fertility rate of Iraq declined from 5.5 to 3.4 children per woman.Iraq’s contraceptive prevalence rate of 74% supports this conclusion.362 | P a g e