In an effort to make up for a dwindling population, Iran is now promoting bigger families and have stopped doctors from performing government-funded vasectomies for more than eight months in a plan to create a baby boom, the Associated Press reported.
After two decades of giving away free condoms, making birth control acceptable and handing out government paid vasectomies in an effort to stop the population from over growing, Iran has once again changed paths, according to the AP.
The Iranian government will even be offering gold coins to the parents of newborns and more paid time-off from work for both the mother and father to entice a baby boom, according to the AP.
"A gold coin won't change couples' calculations," Mohammad Jalal Abbasi, head of Demographics Department at Tehran University, told the AP. "Many young Iranians prefer to continue their studies, not marry. Lack of financial ability to buy a house and meet expenses are among other reasons why the youth postpone marriage or have no interest in raising many children."
When condoms arrived in 1992 along with affordable birth control at 10 cents for a months supply, the birth rates dropped from 3.6 children to 1.8 in a population of 77 million people, the AP reported.
In 1979, experts said Iran would be home to 140 million people by 1990 if the birth rate continued as was. The Iranian government then imposed contraceptive measures that have worked all too well, according to the AP.
Now, the worry is if the Iranian birth rate continues at the current low number, the birth rate could reach zero in the next 20 years, the AP reported.
Supreme Leader of Iran Ali Khamenei said Iran should now aim for a population of more than 150 million people, according to the AP.
"If we move forward like this, we will be a country of elderly people in a not-too-distant future. Why do some couples prefer to have one or two children? Why do couples avoid having children? The reasons need to be studied," Khamenei recently said, according to the AP. "There was an imitation of Western life and we inherited this."
To reverse the effects, Sermons are now preaching to Iranians to have more children to create a better future for Iran, but many have decided to continue their studies and work instead of starting a family due to poor economic opportunity, the AP reported.
Mahdi Sedqazar performed vasectomies in his government-sponsored Martyr Jafari clinic for over a decade until eight months ago, the AP reported. He is now focusing on AIDs prevention and worker health issues.
"Vasectomy operations have totally stopped. They were eliminated eight months ago," Sedqazar said, according to the AP. "The budget on population curbs has been halted."
