The Chronicle
BULAWAYO, Tuesday, May 9, 1967 — Bulawayo’s Medical Officer of Health, Dr EF Watson, just back from Santiago, Chile, where he was a delegate at the eighth international conference of the International Planned Parenthood Federation, said yesterday that he believed the ultimate solution to the problem of birth control would “come out of the needle of a syringe”.
Dr Watson said that although the pill and the intra-uterine contraceptive device were tremendous improvements on older methods, being both more acceptable and more effective, he left the conference convinced they were not the ultimate solution. He believed “the lab” would be. But the injection would have to prevent conception for a considerable period — at least six months — before it would be acceptable.
The world was still a long way from such a discovery. He said the time would come when the subject of the problem family — improvement irresponsible parents with many children — would have to be tackled by compulsory sterilization or the compulsory use of contraceptives. In Japan the government promoted a programme of birth control which included both strerilisation and abortion — both on a voluntary basis. Dr Watson said the conference was attended by 1200 delegates from many countries, including African countries, India, J apan and Pakistan.
The general sessions were held in the municipal theatre, a magnificent and ornate building erected in 1875.
The conference heard from experts, including Dr Alan Guttmacher, president of the planned Parenthood Federation of the United States, that early fears that the pill and the contraceptive device might give rise to serious side effects had been largely dispelled.
Dr Watson said yesterday: “The consensus was that cancer in women taking the pill is lower than those not taking the pill.”
Dr Watson said a statement that impressed him greatly came from a delegate from Lagos ,Dr Adeniyi Jones, who said about man’s inhumanity to man, but not nearly enough has been said about man’s inhumanity to woman”.