• family planning service provision

Thank you to Dr Smith for this interesting question1 submitted in response to our commentary article.2 In our view climate should not be discussed in counselling sessions between provider and client. These meetings should strictly focus on informed, voluntary choice and on the health and welfare of the woman; discussing climate change in this context would be coercive. It is also hard to imagine a mass media campaign that links climate change to individual contraceptive decision-making without seeming coercive or overbearing. In fact, such messaging might be counterproductive since current climate problems are almost entirely due to emissions from high-income countries where fertility rates are low.

John Bongaarts

Regine Sitruk-Ware

Population Council, New York City, NY, USA; jbongaarts@popcouncil.org