A Critique of the Consequences of Birth Control Policies in Iran: A Narrative Review

Today, demographic changes affect almost all aspects of human life and they are one of the main forces influencing socio-economic, cultural, political, and technological changes around the world. Iran has faced a large population in recent years, and as the simplest solution, birth control policies have been adopted, which has had a significant impact on the development process. The present study aims to analyze the consequences of birth control policies in Iran.

In this narrative review, documents without a time limit and using the keywords population, family planning, birth control policy, fertility and Iran, alone or in combination in the Persian and English databases such as: PubMed, Scopus, Magiran, SID, Google Scholar and the websites of the Ministry of Health and Medical Education, the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution, the Statistics Center of Iran, the Research Center of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, the World Health Organization and the United Nations were searched. The documents were summarized and critiqued.

Adoption of birth control policies in Iran has led to a decline in fertility, aging population and inverted population pyramid in Iran the, which significant problems and challenges has created for sustainable development in the country.

If Iran does not limit the declining rate of population growth, in the next few years, it will face both the problem of dangerous population decline and population aging, which will have many economic and social consequences for the country. Therefore, the fertility rate and structure of the elderly population in Iran should focus and it seems necessary to adopt policies to encourage fertility.