Peace Without Poison

Tonga has carried out a stop-and-go population control policy. King Tāufaʻāhau Tupou IV, whoreigned from 1965 to 2005, had two bouts of demographic awareness, from 1962 to 1972, whenthe fertility declined from 7.4 to 5.5 children per woman, and from 1982 to 1988, when fertilitydeclined from 5.5 to 4.8 where it remains to this day. He accomplished this with a contraceptiveprevalence rate of 46% and the provision of family planning services.His successors, George Tupou V (2005-2012) and the current King, Tupou VI (since March2012), appear to have departed from their father’s and, respectively, uncle’s policy of voluntarybirth control. This is discernible in the fact that Tonga’s contraceptive prevalence rate hasdropped below 25% since the beginning of the 21 st century while fertility has remained the same,which can only mean that contraceptives are being replaced with endocrine disruptors.Tonga has recently entered stage three of the demographic transition.855 | P a g e