The government supported the use of modern contraceptives to control fertility rates because of national economic difficulties that followed the disintegration of the Soviet Union.

Before the advent of modern contraceptives, reproductive age women spent most of their time either pregnant or nursing.

In southern Asia, about 34 percent of fertile women use modern contraceptives, while in Africa the figure is as low as 14 per cent.

Since the 1990s, Iran has made modern contraceptives available free at public clinics.

Only 1.9% of these women in 2010 used modern contraceptives.

However the Catholic community looked down upon the National Population Program due to its promise to provide modern contraceptives.

In the region of West Africa, use of modern contraceptives among married women is about 10%, and the desired number of children continues to be high.

The rise of modern contraceptives has made this technologically possible.

Contraceptive failure accounts for a relatively small fraction of unintended pregnancies when modern highly effective contraceptives are used.

Where modern contraceptives are not available, abortion has sometimes been used as a major way of preventing birth.