family planning

See more synonyms for family planning on Thesaurus.com

noun

the concept or a program of limiting the size of families through the spacing or prevention of pregnancies, especially for economic reasons.
(loosely) birth control.

Origin of family planning

First recorded in 1935–40

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words for family planning

contraception

Examples from the Web for family planning

Contemporary Examples of family planning

Last year, Texas drastically cut its family-planning funding, the same way Mitt Romney says he would cut federal funding.
Planned Parenthood’s Cecile Richards: Romney Puts Women’s Lives at Risk
Cecile Richards
May 20, 2012
An estimated 160,000 women lost their health care when Texas slashed its family-planning program last year.
Planned Parenthood’s Cecile Richards: Romney Puts Women’s Lives at Risk
Cecile Richards
May 20, 2012
A proposed state budget bill would effectively strip federal funding to the family-planning organization.
Ohio Republicans Move to Cut Funds to Planned Parenthood, Riling Democrats
Abigail Pesta
April 19, 2012
Nor were their deaths the result of an evil campaign of forced abortion by Chinese family-planning officials.
Has China Gone Mad?
Huang Hung
April 2, 2010

British Dictionary definitions for family planning

family planning

noun

the control of the number of children in a family and of the intervals between them, esp by the use of contraceptivesSee also birth control

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

family planning in Medicine

family planning

A program to regulate the number and spacing of children in a family through the practice of contraception or other methods of birth control.

family planning in Culture

family planning

The use of education and birth control to limit the number of offspring and the population of a country. (See population control and Margaret Sanger.)