Public policies
In many countries, these conflicting concerns have produced ambiguous public policies. Certain governments favor the use of contraceptives by married couples, but not by single adults or minors. In some countries, a growing number of unmarried teenage mothers prompts public policy changes. Some governments support the idea of contraception for everyone who wants it in order to eliminate the need for abortions which remain prohibited. Others see abortion simply as a welcome additional means of limiting the population. On the other hand: Where abortion is made easy, contraception may be neglected; where contraception is made difficult, the number of abortions is bound to rise.

China, in order to control its population growth and to ensure a livable future of its now over 1,2 billion citizens, has instituted a one-child-policy, i.e. as a rule, it allows each couple to have only one child. Here, contraception has become an officially proclaimed nation-wide public program. In many countries, both contraception and abortion were discouraged in the past, and at least abortion remains illegal in some of them. Still other countries have been reluctant to promote voluntary contraception among the general public, but had no scruples about forcing certain people to be sterilized. These sterilizations were usually carried out in order to prevent the transmission of severe genetic defects. However, sometimes forced sterilization was also used for the purpose of social rather than medical control. (Healthy men and women were made infertile against their will because they were poor or otherwise considered "undesirable.")