[Hunan planned parenthood]

Hunan Province did well in planned parenthood last year. The province's natural population growth rate fell to below 10/1000 the lowest in recent years. In 1970 the rate was 21.65/1000. Some 2.15 million fewer babies were born in the 1970s than in the 1960s. According to comrades attending a provincial conference of planned parenthood office directors in Changsha on the eve of the spring festival, there will be a great increase in the numbers of young people of marriageable age in the next year or 2, due to the marriage age provisions of the new marriage law. Judging by the province's current population structure, the province will be facing a sustained upsurge of births in the next decade. Hence the task of advocating late marriage and controlling population growth remains very arduous.