Dominican Republic and Haiti: Country Studies

—
Dominican Republic and Haiti: Country Studies
Source: Based on information from Dominican Republic, Oficina Nacional de
Estadistica, La Republica Dominicana en Cifras, 1997, Santo Domingo, 1998,
52-55.
Figure 3. Dominican Republic: Population Distribution by Age and
Sex, 1993 Census
seem to belie this figure. A scholarly study in the 1990s indicates,
for example, that whereas the use of contraceptive pills
ranged from 5 to 9 percent for the 1975 to 1986 period, permanent
sterilization has become the most popular birth control
method among Dominican women. Their recourse to it rose
from 8 to 33 percent during the above period.
Despite the opposition of the Roman Catholic Church, the
government began supporting family planning in 1967 with
financing from the United States Agency for International
Development. The family planning program expanded rapidly,
from eight clinics concentrated in the cities and larger towns to
more than 500 clinics—some in small towns and rural areas
by the late 1980s. Both the Secretariat of State for Public
Health and Social Welfare (Secretaria de Estado de Salud
Publica y Asistencia Social—SESPAS) and the National Council
on Population and Family (Consejo Nacional de Poblacion y
62